The Quest for Identity and Self-Discovery: A Study of Existential Crisis in Anuradha Roy’s The Folded Earth

The main objective of this term paper is to analyze the theme of existential crisis in Anuradha Roy’s famous novel The Folded Earth. The term “existential crisis” refers to facing the crisis of one's existence. This mainly talks about how people view themselves, as well as their meaning and goals in life. When people feel unsure about their purpose, options, or freedom in life, they are experiencing an existential crisis. Many persons who experience existential anxiety believe that life is meaningless and that there is no purpose to it. Confused thoughts concerning one's sense of identity might also result from an existential crisis. Some of the greatest existential philosophers and writers are Friedrick Nitzsche, Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus and Simon de Beauvoir, etc. This novel The Folded Earth is written by Roy, a recent Sahitya Akademi Award winner, which traces the story of a young woman Maya who creates a new life for herself in the foothills of the Himalayas. It deals with how she becomes alone in her life and questions her existence in this world. It is a time of internal turmoil for Maya when she struggles with self-identity, meaning, and purpose in life. She fights with many traumatic experiences like alienation, anxiety, depression, identity crisis, etc. Then, after leaving her tragedy behind, he decides to go for exploring a new life. Thus, this novel explores the "new woman identity" in modern-day society. The theme of this novel is based on political and religious conflicts in society, patriarchal suppression, inequality, the psychological instincts of a person, identity crisis, and the desire for a new peaceful life. Although the novel has various themes the effect of existential crisis is dominant over the novel.