which events are edited, ordered, packaged, and presented that creates the overall effect of a literary work
” Barry, 2002: 223. Symbols are the other primary term whose discussion is paramount to this
thesis. According to Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, “literary symbol is something that means more than what it suggests on the surface. It may be an
object, a person, a situation, an action, or some other element that has literal meaning in the story but that suggests or represents other meaning as well” 2006:
274.
The last but not least term used in this thesis is main characters. Main or usually known as major characters are
“the characters that appear throughout the novel or in a major section of it - they are involved in the important actions and
conflicts
” leasttern.com, Sept 11 2014. In other words, major characters are
defined as characters that are central to the development and resolution of the story’s conflict.
6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
As a very popular play, Summer and Smoke receives many critiques and
reviews. To gain profound understanding of the object of the study; reviews of related studies are paramount. Firstly, two undergraduate theses and a paper
having Summer and Smoke as their object of studies are studied. Secondly, writer will review a study using binary opposition as its interpretive strategy to grasp
how binary opposition works in literary reading. The first study is Ayunda
Augustten‟s “AlmaWinemiller‟s Psychological Conflict as Seen in Tennessee Williams‟ Summer and Smoke”. In this previous
study, Augustten presents Alma‟s character analysis which is very useful for this study. She mentions Alma Winemiller‟s change in characteristics caused by her
psychological conflict. In the beginning of the play, Alma is described as a naïve young girl, respectful of her parents, has a great simplicity of thought and
possesses a noble heart. All of her good qualities then begin to change after she finds out that she cannot have John love her back like she wants him to. After that
painful revelation, Alma starts to argue back to her parents and turns to be a more aggressive woman who is full of sexual desires. This is seen in the very last
section of the play when Alma encourages a traveling salesman to go to Moonlike Casino
with her only after their first meeting and short conversation Augustten 2004:10.
By highlighting the drastic change of Alma‟s characteristics, Augustten wants to argue that this changes of Alma‟s are as a result of Alma‟s repression of
her desire, in thi s case, sexuality. Using Freud‟s three concepts of human‟s mind,
i.e. the id, ego, and superego, Augustten states that Alma uses her superego, tendency to be morally good, all the time that she unconsciously represses her id,
the tendency to indulge in worldly pleasure and desires. Because of this psychological conflict, Alma suffers from acute anxiety. This anxiety, as
Augustten claims, occurs because of “the imbalance of the superego and the id” 2004: 61 within her inner self. This psychological conflict also results in the
drastic change in Alma‟s personality as Alma‟s id wins over her superego. As Augustten puts it, “her Id explodes and in the end, she changes drastically” 2004:
61. The “explosion” of Alma‟s id is explained as Alma‟s realization of her innate instinct which demands to be fulfilled, i.e. her sexual desire.
In Augustteen‟ study, the analysis of Alma Winemiller is conducted along with minimum analysis of the other character, John Buchanan. In response to that,
this study wants to use different approach in analyzing the character, i.e. by putting Alma into juxtaposition against John since for structurulists, in order to be
able to delve into the drama text and gain its significance, one cannot separate one element, in this case the character, from its pair. This measure is driven from the
belief that Williams‟ Summer and Smoke indeed has to be studied within binary codes in which it is constructed. For example, readers will gain nothing if they
just look into the meaning of “summer” used in this text drama without taking equal importance towards “summer‟s” opposite, “smoke”. This is true since
