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Emily Gan is portrayed as an affectionate character as she was the one who comforted Saloma when she felt down and was the one who tried to change her mindset towards how others look at her so that she won't feel like she being look downed all the time. This can be seen in, "Tell yourself 'Huh!! They are jealous because I am special' Can you say that? Just try...". This shows us how Emily Gan was one of the few people who tried and successfully understand how Saloma felt after seeing how her mom treated her. Hence she tried to use this understanding to try and help Saloma by comforting her. Through this, in Saloma's point of view, Emily Gan is seen as a true friend or a guide. Someone she can rely to as they can actually understand how she truly feels. Hence I think that Emily Gan is an affectionate and caring character in the book as she was able to help Saloma in ways other cannot. Mr Sharma might have made Emily Gan this way to create awareness that even someone like Emily Gan who has an mental illness can help Saloma so why can't others in the society, who are perfectly healthy both physically and mentally, help people with mental illness like Saloma. Thus raising awareness to the society that we need to take action and play a part to help, the less fortunate, mental illness patients.

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Choose a trait for the character(s) you have been assigned.

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Find 1 to 2 lines evidence from the text that correspond to the traits that you have identified. Add this evidence to the post you have already made for the trait.

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For each trait and evidence, explain WHY Sharma has made that authorial choice. Basically provide analysis for the trait and evidence you have chosen. Give insight (how your analysis adds to your overall understanding of the text's message) where possible. This should be in post that you have created for that specific trait.

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Vinod is a character that self deteriorates and is an aggressive character. This can be seen in '"No I want to burn! LET'S BURNNNN. I AM THE DEVIL!! [he slaps Saloma] Yah, hit me back." This shows us that Vinod has lost his composure and his self consciousness which is Vinod narrator which is what led to him abusing and slapping Saloma. Upon his actions, we can reflect on how through what the society has treated people like Vinod who are casted away from the society. This can lead to detrimental damage to the person mentally and can possibly harm themselves as they do not have the ability or have the means to control themselves. Hence we can see that through the text that because of Vinod decline in his mental status he turned aggressive and hurt the people around him.

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Sharma portrays Vinod as a violent and unstable character especially towards the end of the play. This can be seen in "NO!! I want to burn!! LET'S BURNNNN. I AM THE DEVIL!! [he slaps Saloma]." Vinod here is not the same person we saw at the starting of the play. Here he has gone to the point of no return. Vinod will never be the same person again. Him attacking saloma shows his violent side as previously he had never even laid a finger on her. Vinod here is taking his anger on society out on her which was wrong as saloma was not even at fault over here. Mostly society is to be blamed here as there treatment towards vinod has lead to him being so unstable today till he can't go back.

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Sharma portrays Vinod as a lonely but outgoing person. In the play, Vinod is always the one leading the conversations between him and Saloma. He is also always able to interact with other characters. In reality, he is actually very lonely because he suffers from depression because all he wants is to be accepted by the society.

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Sharma portrays Vinod as a confident person. From  the very start, Vinod likes talking to the audience. We can tell that from his waving to the audience. Also, his monologue contains a very accusatory tone as he is blaming the audience for seeing him as a stereotypical mentally ill person. He also likes to challenge the audience

This can be seen from the Prologue’ “ Then why am I labelled mad, Siow. crazy ,mental,psycho,cuck-... and not you?’”

This shows that Vinod is confident because he is good with his words, he is able to use many synonyms for the word ‘crazy’. Vinod feels frustrated that he is being called crazy despite acting just like the majority of the society through the diction ‘not you’. He doesn’t understand how the society differentiates between someone who is normal verses some who is mentally ill. He constantly questions the society and the treatment towards him, thus highlighting the accusatory tone in his monologue.

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Saloma is the main character in off centre.She is the contrasting character from Vinod as she eventually gets better at the end of text whereas vinod’s mental state worse which led him to his death

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Sharma portrays Saloma as someone that wants to improve and get better in life.

“Saloma: Nak makan ubat
Saloma: Doctor say must eat
Saloma: Ubat bagus”

here we can see how Saloma willingly wants to get better by eating her medication. irregardless of whether her mother likes the idea or not, she will always try and make sure that she eats her medication. it shows how she wants to improve herself and make her life into a better one by listening to professional help.

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Saloma is portrayed as an extreme introvert who finds it hard to communicate with society. We see in the first part of the play that she is always guided by Vinod to do things and is always scared to be in public. As she suffers from schizophrenia, she is always following a voice in her head. She is always called mental and even her own mother doesnt accept her illness which is very heartbreaking.

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Emily is being portrayed as a symbol of positivity amongst mentally ill patients. This can be seen from how she effectively influenced Saloma when she undermined  herself because of her illness, “Saloma: my mother say I very stupid. Emily: No,no, you are not stupid at all. I know. I can read your mind. Your mother can read minds or not?” Emily is telling a white lie to Saloma, but it still made Saloma feel better about herself as compared to how her mother made her feel. Despite both of them are mentally ill patients, there is a huge difference between them regarding their attitude towards their conditions and level of confidence. Mr Sharma created this character to show how mentally ill patients are able to heal one another with simple ways like how Emily make Saloma repeat and believe in that she is strong, while other people couldn’t really gain Saloma’s trust.

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Vinod is a character that is trying to fight against his mental illness but feels oppressed by society due to the social stigma around mental illness. He becomes more and more wary and isolates himself from society as time goes by. In the play off centre, sharma shows how vinod slowly turns from an outgoing and chatty person to someone who is reserved and quiet. He changes due to the stress and slowly lets himself succumb to his illness and eventually kills himself(?)

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sharma portrays mak as someone who, despite her having problems in her life, she tries to persevere through it.

“mak: everybody say I am strong. see, her husband die so young. her daughter become mad. but she still so strong. mak jaga saloma. mak jaga bapak saloma. siapa jaga mak. siapa?”

from here, we can see how much mak had to go through from losing her husband to having to take care of saloma while still trying to make income. despite her challenges, she still continues to work hard to make a living by selling food. not only that, she still tries to make sure that saloma is being taken care of, irregardless whether the way is harsh or not. thus we can see how mak pushes through in life and even though she acts tough towards saloma, that is her way of giving love and care for saloma.

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Saloma  is potrayed as Someone that shows change throught out The story to tell The readers that People with mental illness Can get better and in The end Even helping Vinod with his mental illness.

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Sharma portrays Saloma as someone who is not very independent but progresses throughout the play. This can be seen when at the first half of the play when Saloma starts distrusting at the restaurant. While Saloma goes on about how her mother tells her to pray, it appears that she does pray just because her mother tells her to do, following what she is told to do senselessly. Furthermore, Vinod right after tells Saloma that he would be a statue for her to rely on and that he would take care of her. Hence co-independent.

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Sharma portrays Vinod as a character that gets frustrated easily .

“Give YOU a break ? Give YOU a break ? Great Charlie,great! I bloody had to spend two months in the bloody Woodbridge Hospital and you want a break.”

From this evidence , we can see that Vinod is a person who is intense and has strong emotions and opinions . This is because not many people understand what he is going through.

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Saloma in the play off centre, is a character that shows progressive improvement in coming to terms with her mental illness and gets better overtime with the help of others around her. Saloma gets support and understanding from other characters who help her to be brave. Sharma shows the importance of saloma in vinod, where how vinod helps saloma at the start of the play to be more outspoken and daring. However, towards the end of the play, saloma becomes the one who ends up trying to help vinod fight against his mental illness. This shows the significant improvement saloma receives throughout the play where she becomes better and more understanding of her circumstance and embraces it.

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Sharma portrays Vinod as an insecure character where he seeks for acceptance in the society.

“ Vinod looked at the audience with uncertainty. He wondered if they liked him. He had cracked a few jokes, good ones too, which he had been practicing for some time.”

This shows us how Vinod hopes to fit into the society and be like the audience.

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Haresh Sharma portrays Saloma as a character who depends on Vinod at the beginning of the play , and transition to relying on herself at the end of it.

“ But I still have to be there for him”

Through this, it shows how Saloma grew from being over-reliance to helping Vinod. Where Sharma shows the changes Saloma made as the plot continues, Saloma seems to have transform and change to be more independent .

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Emily Gan is portrayed as a tragic character who has mental illness, yet provides guidance and support to the other patients.

“ we are strong , nothing can destroy us “

Through Emily Gan words , Saloma and other character in the Halfway House like Nirmala, have regain their confidence . As she spreads her positively through her words which influences and impacted Saloma .

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sharma portrays mak as an unaccepting mother to saloma. despite saloma being sick, she as a mother does not accept the fact that her daughter is sick. this may be because to her, as long as she is normal, her daughter too must be normal. in her eyes, saloma is her so that makes saloma a normal person which is very sad to me because saloma is in a way being controlled by her mother. it is also very sad to see how even saloma’s mother, the one who should be there for her, is the one rejecting her illness and rven not letting her eat her medication.

however, perhaps although mak behaves this way, the play also shows the side of mak where she feels very burdened and tired. she has been working very hard to support the family and she thought that since her husband passed away, she needed to work more and that she would be okay with saloma dying which is very heartbreaking. she says this because she says that she would then have to pay less expenses and have less debts.

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Sharma Portrays Saloma as a character who symbolises change.

This can be seen in’ Next time, you cannot take care of yourself, I must take care of you. I can still learn. I can still take care of you.’

Here we can see that Saloma transformer drastically. She is in the road to recover from her mental illness. Previously she was very dependent on Vinod. She was very afraid of the society judging her but now she had transformed into someone who has the courage to take care of her mother despite her schizophrenia. This is because of her constant determination to cure her of her mental illness. Hence, Saloma is a symbol of change

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Sharma portrays Vinod as someone who seems very confident and is a open book. Vinod seems like he is very comfortable to meet new people and enjoy interacting with others. However in reality, Vinod is not satisfied with the society around him as he cant get accepted into it easily like the others just because of his mental state.

This can be seen in “ I saw you looking at me. You like my singing is it ? [no reply] My danc- My name is Vinod.”
This shows us that vinod is not shy and is a very open to talk to people. He has the courage to have a conversation with strangers which most people like Saloma dont. However , Vinod could think that Saloma was ignoring him as he was very unlike other people saloma has known which could make him have a opinion of unacceptance for his character.

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sharma portrays vinod as someone who tries to integrate and blend in with the society despite how society was reluctant towards people with mental illnesses.

“vinod: [to audience] You know, I said “hi” to eighty-seven people and only twelve said “hi” back to me. i guess it’s true. people can tell when someone is mentally ill”

from this, we can see how right from the beginning of the play, vinod tries to engage and interact with the audience who are represent ‘the society’ in the play. we can see how he puts in the effort to try and fit in to be seemed as normal to the audience.

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Vinod is portrayed as the main character in who tries to have the perfect life while being diagnosed with Depression and ADHD

“ok,i’ll count to three and we both say the first word that comes our minds.Ready?One,two,three!Dance!
[Saloma remains silent]”

“They’re educated, intelligent, intellectual,pragmatic,upright.... and cold.”

It shows that Vinod has high expectations of himself despite being mentally challenged.The expectations seems more like approval from his parents so that he can talk with them as they are study-minded.So he goes to NUS to get a degree and make a name for himself.

“

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Sharma portrays Saloma as a character that is shy and not independent . However , at the end of the play , her condition has improved and she started to be more free and out-going .

“We can go out . We can find-“

From this , we can see that Saloma is good on her own and she no longer needs to depend on Vinod . In short , Saloma wants to be free .

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sharma portrays emily gan as a symbol of hope especially for saloma.

“emily: saloma, let me tell you, anytime ah, anytime at all you think someone is saying bad things about you, be strong. tell yourself, “huh!! they are jealous because I am special.” can you say that? just try...”

from here, we can see how encouraging emily gan is towards saloma. though emily herself is not doing well, she still tries to make sure that those around here are doing okay. it shows how she gives people the courage to step up for themselves. she also gives people faith and hope that they’ll eventually get better. this shows how she ends up changing the people around her, like saloma to be a better person.

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Sharma portrays Emily as a symbol of empowerment.

This can be seen in ‘ tell yourself, “ Huh!! They are jealous because I am special .” Can you say that? Just try...’

Here, we can see that even though Emily’s appearance in the text  is short lived, she is very significant. She is the strongest voice of empathy, reason and good humour, despite being a supposedly insane patient herself. Emily is the only character other than Vinod who encouraged Saloma and makes her feel special for her difference, in contrast to her mother who is more religious belief of devil possession.

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Sharma portrays Vinod to be an insensitive character. This can be seen when Vinod decided to take out his anger on Saloma with forcing his harsh beliefs onto Saloma. This can be seen when "S: God can help us. V: Help up? Great! Did God help you when you were in Woodbridge? Don't forget God put you there in the first place." Though it was obvious that Saloma began to become upset, Vinod proceeded to carry on in the heat of the moment. Vinod probably wanted to hurt Saloma to compensate for how hurt he was, making him insensitive.

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Emily Gan is a metaphor for an angel . She is a protector who provides guidance and is a positive influence . She is part of the reason why Saloma’s condition has improved .

“They are jealous because we are special.”

Emily Gan is the one who said this to Saloma and it made Saloma stronger and more confident .

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Sharma portrays saloma as a character who is contrasting of vinod through how she changes from a person who was dependant on vinod to a person who became independent at the end of the play.

This can be seen in "[pause. she looks at the audience].

For the first time in the play we see saloma talk to the audience. This shows how much she has progressed from the start of the play where she was terrified to come and talk to the audience.

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Razali is a father-like figure as well as a god-like figure to the audience and the characters.

“You see this ?This is my hand.[points to the lines]My life, my work, money.No money.[he takes her hand]This is your hand.Your life, your work, your money

[Razali enters] Batak
“Where were you ?”
huh ?
During the robbery! You are the guard l.You were supposed to guard us.How come you’re not here when we need you most”

This shows that that Razali is a guiding figure for Saloma.Saloma didn’t not have good father figure and she slowly gravitated towards calling Rz
Rakzali

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Sharma portrays Charlie and Denise as prevalent reactions towards facing people with mental illnesses, Vinod, portraying society. This can be seen when how Charlie and Denise do not really know how to act around Vinod, with Charlie being very apologetic with every action and Denise being very tense and fidgety around Vinod. With, "C: I'm sorry - V: - I understand. You don't- C: - I'm really sorry- V: 'STOP APOLOGISING!!! (soft) Stop apologising." This helps to show how a common reaction towards people with mental illnesses, portrayed by Charlie, is often pity or sympathy, constantly apologising, as if for Vinod's 'loss'. Or with, " V: I'm sure you have to go off. D: Yes. C: No. ... D: Er... ha ha... yah. V: Boo! (Denise screams. Charlie laughs.)" This helps to show how dense being another common reaction, to an extent awkward and tense around Vinod, not knowing the right way to act around him.

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1. Sharma portrays Vinod as a victim from the way society treats people with mental illnesses, though the breakdowns of Vinod. In the play, Vinod had an emotional break down during his time serving the Army. “ pc: ok, Vinod that’s enough. Vinod: I HAVE BALLS SIR. I HAVE BALLS SIR... pc: you expect other people to fight for you is it? is it?!! just die lah. ok Vinod? just die. [slight pause] Do it for your country “this heartbreaking scene shows the way Vinod had a mental breakdown, and was clearly in distressed from the way his PC was pressuring and constantly reprimanding Vinod harshly. however, even after Vinod had clearly shown that he was not in the right condition to be shouted at, the PC still continued to shout at him and even told Vinod to kill himself, for his own country. To tell a person who is suicidal that, is extremely disgusting and harsh, yet, it symbolises the society to a certain extent, representing how certain people in society treat those with mental illnesses. In this case, the society has no understanding for people with mental illness who require additional support and patience, just like what Vinod needs, and instead treats them with little understanding and care. Vinod is suffering from the impacts of the way society disregards the needs of people with mental illnesses and their situations, hence portraying Vinod as one of society’s victims.

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sharma portrays PC as the harsh reality of how society is towards people who struggle with mental illnesses.

"PC: you are bloody bastard, you know that?! Huh Vinod? You know that?! You are not fit to be in the army. Just die lah. OK, Vinod? Just die. Do it for your country"

we can see how PC is a prime example of how reality can really treat people badly. this shows how PC looked down on Vinod because he is seen as useless to him. instead of being considerate and having an open-mind towards people suffering from mental illness, PC does the complete opposite, which in turn, only demoralises mental patients more.

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sharma portrays Azman as an unpleasant character in the play through how he behaves when he was with saloma.

"Azman: Come lah, little while only. Don't worry."
"Azman: Wah, very hot ah stand outside here. He takes off his T-shirt. come lah, go inside"

we can see how azman is peer-pressuring saloma into doing something that she finds uncomfortable. saloma is known to have a shy and innocent personality and with azman acting rather weird around her, she doesn't know how to react and respond. this may be the reason why she also eventually gave in and agreed to go with azman. she only felt like doing so, possibly because she wanted to be nice towards him.