Halfway Road Penang by Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof Position : Rosnah is in love with her Stepfather (Salleh)

Love in family is the most essential part in a happy and prosperous family. Love is feelings that can be felt in many ways. Only people who are in love can truly understand what is love and what can it make us do. In the Halfway Road Penang thats written by Ghulam Sarwar Yousof the story is mainly about a family that been living in lies due to their bad action in the past. This is proven by the evolvement of the characters itself where past action haunted two characters that are Rosnah and Salleh that had cause what the position state that is Rosnah is in love with her stepfather. The understanding of the relation of father and daughter are usually more to the fatherly love manner, where the bond of father and daughter is merely to respect each other space and life. But in Halfway Road Penang the relationship between Rosnah (stepdaughter) and Salleh (stepfather) is in awkward manner that unbelievably and surprisingly exist in our society nowadays. Both of them had bad experiences with each other where Rosnah and Salleh used to have an affair. Rosnah was a waitress cum prostitute and Salleh was her customer. Although this play was first produce in the 70s but the issues of social problems nowadays are cleverly written by Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof by describing Rosnahs dysfunctional family in the Rosnah character itself. Before going further into the discussion of the position, much other discussion about the story had been done by readers to interpret the true meaning of the play. Discussion that had been done by Noritah Omar and Washima Che Dan in Journal
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Of English Studies And Comparative Literature in the play Halfway Road, Penang, Ghulam Sarwar Yousof captures the Malays pessimistic acceptance of fate and their misconceptions of qada and qadar (similar to Lahumas family in Shahnon Ahmads Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan). In a conversation about the state of their poverty, the main characters Halimah ( Rosnah mother) and Salleh reveal their limited understanding of religion (Islam). Halimah: Its Gods will. We should give thanks for what He gives us, and not complain. Its our rizeki. Its what God thinks we deserve. Well get along somehow on that. Salleh: Stop saying that, Limah. There must be something more than just Gods will for us to fall back upon. These days many young Bumiputera have become rich overnight. Surely Azman (Act One, Scene 1, p 6) Halimah, who believes religiosity means accepting your fate as Gods will and not to try to prove otherwise, is reprimanded by her husband Salleh, who supposedly is the more religiously knowledgeable of the two. However, Sallehs words reveal a different (mis)understanding of Islam, not necessarily the more accurate one. Again, the Malay dream of becoming rich overnight is revealed here as a consistent Malay escapist fantasy, contrary to any sort of religiosity. Different view in understanding the story is portraying through the character. An issue of religious is being discussed in the previous paragraph. To add to the point that Rosnah is in love with Salleh her stepfather, forbidden love issue is taken into count. Love issue is considered taboo in Malay society. We do not discuss about love and sexuality in open. In my understanding
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the character of Rosnah and Salleh, the writer describes more about the forbidden love between them. The character of Rosnah had been described as a plain young girl that has many secrets up her sleeves about her stepfather. Working as a waitress in a club had change Rosnah perception towards men especially her stepfather. Pretending to be pious, Salleh tried to hide his true character and secrets from his wife Halimah. The person that knows the REAL Salleh is Rosnah. Hatred is biggest reaction show by Rosnah in the play. Hatred towards Salleh is the only thing that can be seen from the lines in the play. Lines like: i) Rosnah : Yes, scream, you poor schizophrenic devil, scream. Youre an angel in public, like all the rest of them but
ii) Rosnah : Dont forget you are one of them, despite your pretensions to piety

and you public image. Inside you are dirty, lonely bastard like all of them who crawl on bleeding knees in the bak alley like leeches.. This shows how Rosnahs feeling towards Salleh her stepfather. Hatred and vengeance of what he had did in the past towards her. But as the story goes on Rosnah true feeling is shown little by little. Rosnah attitude and towards Salleh is one of the point that shows that she is in love with Salleh. Rosnah tried to grab Salleh attention by annoying him when she spend time with her mother. This can be see clearly at the beginning of the story where the narrator produce this line :Suddenly there is the loud noise of musicmodern Western pop number, Salleh continues to pray until he has completed his prayers, and then shout.

As a normal mind thinks, when we hate somebody we dont even bother to think of that people business but here Rosnah deliberately did it just to grab Salleh attention towards her. This can be seen in line :Rosnah : . The noise as you called it. I did it deliberately, you know. Yes, deliberately But as mentioned in the position, love towards her stepfather ( Salleh ) is showed little by little in the play as it goes. As people say when somebody is jealous and hate them so much that show that you love that person. That is what can be seen in Rosnah character. The love for Salleh can be seen when Rosnah tried to recall back the memories that they had with each other during the days when Salleh roamed the black street of Halfway Road where Rosnah

always keep him companied in fulfilling his needs. The line that showed her feeling towards Salleh are:i)

Rosnah : Do what? Im not doing anything. I was just feeling lonely. I wanted to talk to someone. After all you never asked me to go away before. Whats wrong with you? You know Salleh, it amused me, the way you pretend to be mad at me just now. The noise as you called it. I did it deliberately, you know. Yes, deliberately. To tease you. I knew you couldnt do anything. Yes, you could do nothing but yell at the top of your voice, without really meaning it just to keep the pretence.. (laughing). It was so funny.

ii)

Rosnah : Me too. My heart aches deep inside, and I feel so depressed, so very depressed. I need someone, someone on whose shoulders I can cry. Life seems so hollow, so empty so without meaning.

iii) iv)

Rosnah : Im so unhappy. Rosnah : So very unhappy.

The repetition of the words unhappy and lonely can describe that Rosnah is feeling unhappy with the marriage of her mother and Salleh. She needs somebody that understands her like Salleh. Someone that can pay attention to her, caressed her just like the old days. Adding to the points, Rosnah shows that she is still missing the old days spending time with Salleh by wearing a sexy night gown and taking chances to get together and flirt with Salleh when Halimah her mother is not at home clearly shows Rosnahs feeling towards Salleh. This shows that Rosnah cannot forget how Salleh had treated her in the past. Although it was full with cruelty by how Salleh treated Rosnah in the past but she still wanted to talk to him and remembered the old memories that they had with each other. The expectation of how Salleh had been treated her mother is what Rosnah wanted Salleh to do to her. Somehow bizarre in the relationship between a father and daughter, but that is what Rosnah wanted from Salleh. Salleh try to keep it cool by not acknowledging Rosnah attempt to persuade and flirt Salleh to do stupid things. Understanding that it is not proper for a father and daughter to act like that Salleh tried to avoid Rosnah persuasion and flirtation. This can be seen in lines when he tried to push Rosnah away. Salleh : G go in and change, Rosnah. Its not proper.
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Salleh : Then then put something else over it. Something more decent. Salleh : Rosnah, youll ruined me. Your mother Azman. Someone may come in. Please, please dont do this to me. Salleh tried to forget her past by forgetting what he had done towards Rosnah. She tried not to make mistake with Rosnah again. Gently ignoring Rosnah temp is the most proper way to reject Rosnah temp without causing chaos in the house. Gently ignoring Rosnah is one of the point that shows that Salleh still have a soft spot in his heart for Rosnah. Just imagine if your stepdaughter treated you the way like Rosnah did, for sure you will get angry and mad like crazy and distant yourself from her. But here Salleh also might still have the feeling of love that he wasnt supposed to have the day he married Halimah. This can be seen is Salleh action in line :

Rosnah joins him, and he puts his arm around her. They embrace. Light dim out. Only the light of the full moon falls on them.

Rosnah love towards Salleh had created an awkward situation in the story. Rosnah had shown that she is not afraid to express her feeling towards the man that she likes although she knows that the feeling is wrong. Love can make us do stupid things without thinking about the consequences, the right and wrong and also the sins of future action. This truly had been potrayed in Rosnah character where she is in love with her stepfather. Deep religious understanding can help to prevent this situation between Rosnah and Salleh. As the conclusion Rosnah had shown her true
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love feeling towards Salleh although that she know that Salleh will or will not reply towards her feeling. Loneliness and love can make us do stupid things. Faith as what we said in Islam Iman need to be strong to push all the wrong feeling as what Rosnah felt for Salleh.

Bibliography

1. Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof : Halfway Road Penang 2002. The Asian Centre.

3. Noritah Omar and Washima Che Dan : Race, Gender and Religion Within the Construct of Bangsa Malaysia and National Islamic Identity in Malaysian Literature . Journal Of English Studies And Comparative Literature.