Hurston's novel is replete with these conventions, as well as other dominant features of African American culture. Omission or absence of copula in conversations, groups of consonants reduced at the ends of words, deletion of r and l, signifying, tens game, boasting (Smitherman), and free indirect speech, or quasi-direct speech (Pateman). A favorite passage exploring the fun of verbal play, or meaning, occurs in chapter seven when Janie finally stands up to Jody, her second husband, after all the times he had belittled her in front of others: "Stop mixing my actions. What a look, Jody. When you've finished, tell me how you cut tobacco, then you'll tell me if my behind is straight or not... No, Ah, it's not a young girl, no, but there, Ah, it's not not an old woman. neither one nor the other. Ah, I think Ah looks old too. But I am every inch a woman, and I know it. It's much more than what you say. You big bellies out here and you brag a lot, but it's nothing but your big voice... You're talking about me looking old! When you pull down your pants, you look like you're not changing your life. (79) An example of indirect speech can be seen in chapter nineteen when the narrator reports some of the thoughts of Tea Cake, Janie's third husband, after he becomes ill with rabies and cannot think clearly: Tea Cake didn't say anything. against this and Janie herself hurried. For her, this illness was worse than the storm. As soon as she was out of sight, Tea Cake stood up, threw down the bucket of water, and washed it clean... He wasn't accusing Janie of malice and design. He accused him of negligence. She should understand that buckets of water had to be washed like everything else. He was telling her about... middle of paper... how she and Tea Cake had been together so they could see that she never shot Tea Cake out of malice. see how terrible it was that things were so fixed that Tea Cake couldn't come back to himself until he got rid of that mad dog inside him and he couldn't get rid of that dog and live… But she had done it. I didn't want to kill him... She made them understand that she never wanted to get rid of him. She didn't beg anyone. She just sat there and said it and when she was done, she shut up. (187) These passages not only provide excellent examples of the distinctive features of AAVE mentioned earlier in this article, such as the use of done for resultives, consonant clusters, and the replacement of the /d/ sound with the /th/ sound, but they also demonstrate how, regardless of the social occasion, Janie does not modify her speech patterns or dialectical utterances.