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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31960
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31960
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

"Use the present tenses when discussing events in literary works" I don't know where you got this from, but it is not true. The default for stories is to tell them in the past tense, or to be more precise, in the narrative past -- relating them as if the events occurred in the past.

This is fundamental to storytelling. Events happen. Then a story is told about those events. The storytelling happens after the events.

There are cases where the narrative present is used -- that is, events are narrated as if they are occurring as they are being narrated, but this is a departure from the norm. This approach can change the mood of the story, making it seem more chaotic or giving it a sense of inevitability of doom. The narrative present obliterates all room for deliberation or consideration, resulting in this sense that things are beyond the characters control.

Note that in your example, the first sentence is actually in present tense (_the story opens_). So it actually switches from present to past tense, which may be what gives you the sense that present tense ought to be used in the rest of the passage. But the default would be to use past for all of it.

Original score: 1