Passage Rewrite

Lige Moss and Sam Watson (pg.65 chapter 6)

[Passage from Lige Moss]
“Listen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn’t have tuh look out for babies touchin’ stoves, would they? ’Cause dey just naturally wouldn’t touch it. But dey sho will. So it’s caution.” “Naw it ain’t, it’s nature, cause nature makes caution. It’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing God every made. He made nature and nature made everything else.”

[Rewritten passage from Janie]
Tuh me, Ah’d think it is nature, cause caution comes from nature and it’s de only thing dat God ever made, he’s jus there as a guide. He made nature and nature made everything else. Humans as creature now are part of nature. God ain’t create everything, things form from nature and Ah think nature solves all. Yah only need God when yah need him the most…that’s why yah pray.”

This interchange, which occurs in Chapter 6, is an excerpt from a lively debate between Lige Moss and Sam Watson on the porch of Jody’s store. In addition to being an excellent example of Hurston’s use of dialect and idiomatic English, this dialogue speaks to Janie’s developing understanding of herself in relation to the world. Here, Sam and Lige argue about the relationship between mankind and God and between themselves and the world around them.