Final answer:
The excerpt from "In the Time of Butterflies" is predominantly written in the A. present tense, which is typical when discussing literature in the form of a literary present tense, used to give a sense of immediacy and relevance to the work.
Step-by-step explanation:
The excerpt from "In the Time of Butterflies" is written mainly in the present tense. When analyzing a literary text such as a story, play, poem, or novel, the discussion of the work is done in the present tense. This approach is known as the literary present tense and is used regardless of whether the narration within the story itself is in the past tense.
It is important to note that the present tense is used in literary discussions to suggest that a piece of literature, although written in the past, still exists and can be discussed in the present. For example, one might say 'the author describes' or 'the character decides' rather than 'described' or 'decided', even if the events within the story took place in the past or if the author is no longer living.
There are instances, however, where you might switch to the past tense to indicate actions that characters within the text have completed before the present action, or to refer to events in the author's life that do not relate directly to the text.