Writing essay. Question about tense.?

Question

I'm writing an essay about a book I read. The book is written in past tense but my essay is in present tense. When I quote text from the book, there are past tense verbs in the text, is this going to be a problem in keeping a consistent tense?

Here's an example:
Macondo represents a communal society where equality is important. Looking at Jose Arcadio Buendia’s planning of the town, “[he] had set up the placement of the houses in such a way that from all of them one could reach the river and draw water with the same effort, and he had lined up the streets with such good sense that no house got more sun than another during the hot time of the day.”

Answer 1

You're doing it correctly.

Answer 2

No, this is fine, but might confuse you so beware to keep yourself in the present tense. The only problem I see is with the start of your quotes...Is this quote at the start of the sentence? If not, then add a (...) to symbolize that you have left out information. For example:

"...[he] had set up the placement of the houses in such a way that...one could reach the river and draw water with the same effort."

Answer 3

the selection of stressful relies upon on context, and experienced writers often do selection tenses contained in the direction of a artwork. the backside stressful of an essay is the present, yet you may use the destiny or a conditional whilst speculating or the previous whilst helping your thesis with an historic account. regardless of the stressful, ward off the passive voice every time achieveable--its use just about continuously introduces vagueness, and severe college English instructors have a tendency to frown on it.

Answer 4

No because a direct quote is identified by 'xxxxxx' and indented from the rest of the text.