Time in That Tree

This is going off of Sarah and Austin's posts:

I also thought the narration in this story was interesting, and something else that I wanted to add on to that, that Austin touched on, was the issue of time and how this adds to the story. To me, the time in this story seems very non-linear, and at points in the story, it is hard to tell if the story he is narrating is happening in the present, or if it is happening in the past. I think Austin is on to something, and I think that this varied time adds to the idea that the artist is spinning his wheels. The story starts out with the artist sitting under a tree, then it jumps to the reasons why he decided to get his act and gear, and get out from under the tree and become a journalist, but then from there the time shifts back and forth from the past to the present. For instance when he is narrating the story of when he first got married to his wife this is told in the past tense, but then he goes further into the past and narrates how before his wife had arrived he had been living with a Native American woman. These time shifts show to me how the artist is living in the past and spinning his wheels, not sure of what to do or where to go next.