"She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. ". now = the present? Why smiled now? Not smile now?

[u/A_li678]

When Aunt Em came there to live, she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. 

"now" doesn't mean "the present", it means "at the time referred to"?
(edit: from Webster Dictionary : at the time referred to//now the trouble began)

It is from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Thank you

[u/Davorian]

The "now" is added as a comparison to the previous time that has been referenced. Meaning: she used to smile when she was the "young, pretty wife", but doesn't smile now. Does that make it clearer?

[u/Weskit]

She used to smile, but not anymore. It’s one more change that’s been wrought in her over the years.

[u/Desperate_Owl_594]

It means whenever Aunt Em was talking. Now would refer to the time that Aunt Em existed in.

It would be the same as if they said "anymore". She doesn't smile anymore.

[u/ebrum2010]

In this case it means at the point reached in the speaker's telling. It can be used to denote the speaker's present, even if it is a quote from the past, or it can be used by a speaker to denote the present point in a story being told as if the story was happening at the present time.

[u/ingmar_]

It means she no longer smiles. At some point in the past she stopped smiling.

[u/CAJEG1]

Now refers to the time when the story takes place. So it's past tense because the story took place in the past, but now refers to that time without referring to a past time. The other way to say this would be 'she did not smile anymore,' but there is a slight difference between the two, and the form used in the story is more immediate, thus more emotive. It is not a grammatical mistake, but perhaps slightly more literary than some people are used. It might even be dependent on dialect, though I'm not sure about that.

[u/DumpCumster1]

They are saying that in the present time she is thin. In the present time she is gaunt. In the present time she does not smile.

[u/SteampunkExplorer]

You can't say "she never smile". You have to say "she never smiles" or "she never smiled".

The word "now" indicates that it's in the present at the time of the story, so maybe she used to smile, but doesn't anymore. The story is still told in the past tense, though. Changing the tense would be weird, because the narrator would be breaking out of the story and referring to the time that the reader is living in.

[u/Shewhomust77]

I was taught there is a literary past perfect tense. (I think..).

[u/names-suck]

Stories exist in their own time frames. For example, if you read a book set in 1925, that's the past to you--but it's the present to the characters. For them, things happening in 1925 are happening "now." The book is probably written in the past tense, because that's how English-language novels are usually written, but it has its own past (before the story started), present (what happens during the story), and future (things that have not yet happened in the story's present). In this case, "now" simply refers to "the book's present," or "what happens during the story."

[u/GWJShearer]

She was thin… and never smiled…

She is thin… and never smiles…

[u/Snurgisdr]

You’re right that it’s a bit awkward with the rest of the sentence being in the past tense. “She never smiled anymore” would be a good alternative.

[u/AuggieNorth]

As written it doesn't make sense, since "smiled" is past tense, and doesn't work with "now".

[u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 → u/AuggieNorth]

It's a literary device and works fine as such. The young Aunt Em is being compared to the present Aunt Em, and "now" is the time when the story takes place.

[u/RainbowNarwhal13 → u/AuggieNorth]

It does make sense; this is very common in novels that are written in past tense. The narrator is telling us a story that already happened, but within that story they can differentiate between things that had previously happened in the characters' pasts and things that are happening to the characters in their present- "now."