I feel that the most important passage in this novel occurs with the exchange between Sam and Walter on pp. 63-66. The exchange between Sam and Walter has to do with a hypothetical question Walter poses to Sam. He asks "Whut is it dat keeps uh man from getting’ burnt on uh red-hot stove – caution or nature?" Sam proceeds to tell Walter that he believes it is nature and Walter counters that it is fact caution. This passage is key to the novel in several ways. It strengthens Zora Neale Hurston’s story which is all about Janie trying to find her identity and relating that quest to nature. Janie’s quest to also find love is hindered for a moment when she first meets Tea Cake. Janie is real cautious of Tea Cake because he is much younger that she is and she is constantly being told that he may only be after her money. She eventually throws caution to the wind and lets nature take its’ course. It is then she realizes that when nature is allowed to take its’ course, true love finds her after all.

The exchange between Sam and Walter sets up the second half of the book and guides the story into a nature vs. caution direction. Zora wrote the story and used nature as a key element to the story. We even see the results of ignoring caution when the hurricane hits the Everglades. Janie and Tea Cake decide to stay and quickly realize how dreadful that decision was. It was nature in all its’ fury that drove Janie and Tea Cake towards Palm Beach and it was nature again in the form of a rabid dog that would have the final say. The way the novel ends shows the reader that both Sam and Walter were correct to some extent. Nature is a powerful force and works in tandem with caution. Is who we are directed by nature or caution? That is the very question this novel addresses. That passage also parallels the nature vs. nurture debate that psychologists and sociologists are still debating to this day. Notably, the discussion between Sam and Walter was never finished, just like the debate.