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Literature

The story follows Maya as she deals with her husband Michael's passion for mountain climbing which takes him away from her. Michael plans a trek to the mysterious Roopkund lake but does not return, with Maya later learning that he died in a landslide. The story explores the conflict between Maya and Michael's love for each other and his love for the mountains.

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Jemah Ann
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68 views

Literature

The story follows Maya as she deals with her husband Michael's passion for mountain climbing which takes him away from her. Michael plans a trek to the mysterious Roopkund lake but does not return, with Maya later learning that he died in a landslide. The story explores the conflict between Maya and Michael's love for each other and his love for the mountains.

Uploaded by

Jemah Ann
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Folded Earth

(Excerpt)
By: Anuradha Roy
BACKGROUND
OF THE WORK
Title:
The Folded Earth
Author:
Anuradha Roy
Publication Information:
New York : Free Press, 2012.
©2011
Publication Date: 3
Language:
English
Genre:
Psychological fiction, Love stories
NOTE:
Originally published in Great
Britain in 2011 by MacLehose Press
4
AUTHOR’S
BACKGROUND
Anuradha Roy is an award-
winning Indian novelist,
journalist and editor. Roy has
grew up mainly in Hyderabad,
India, where she was educated
at Nasr School. She studied 6
She is the co-founder of
Permanent Black, a publishing
house started in 2000, where
she is a designer.
She has written three novels,
which have been widely 7
Her third novel, Sleeping on
Jupiter, was long-listed for the
Man Booker Prize, and won
the DSC Prize for South
Asian Literature. Anuradha 8
It was named by World
Literature Today as one of
the "60 Essential English
Language Works of
Modern Indian Literature".
9
Sleeping on Jupiter, her third
novel, won the DSC Prize for
South Asian Literature and
was nominated for the Man
Booker Prize. Her essays and10
CHARACTERS &
CHARACTERIZATION
Maya
The narrator of the story,
the wife of Michael
Michael
A trekker; the husband 12
CHARACTER
TREE
MAYA

MICHAEL 14
SETTING
(Temporal and Physical)
Physical Setting
In a two rented rooms, with a
narrow bed
Temporal Setting
Evening
16
PLOT
My rival in love was not a
woman but a mountain range.
It was very soon after my
wedding that I discovered this.
We had defied our families to
be together and those first few
18
It began in little ways---silences,
the poring over maps, the
unearthing of boots and jackets
stuffed in a suitcase under our
bed---and the slow burning
restlessness in Michael become
overpowering. He was with me but 19
Through a school friend whose
father was an editor, he found a
job with a newspaper when we
got married. We could not
afford more than an annual trek
for him in the mountains and 20
Michael’s yearning
made me understand
how it is that some
people have the 21
I knew from our student days
together that Michael trekked and
climbed. We were far away from
the high peaks: we lived in
Hyderabad. The journey to the
foothills of Himalaya took two
body left in a trail of his mind, which
was already nine thousand feet above
sea level and climbing. One year,
Michael decided to go on a trek to
Roopkund, a lake in Himalaya at
about sixteen thousand feet. It is
reached by a long, hard climb toward
A park ranger stumbled
upon the lake in 1942 and
it has been an enigma ever
since; it contains boed and
skulls, preserved by the
24
Michael had tried to reach
Roopkund once before
and failed because of bad
weather and lack of
experience. This time, he
found myself looking at him with an
intensity I had forgotten over six
years of being married to him. The
smell of him, which I breathed in
deep as if to store inside me; the
bump on his nose where it had been
broken when he was a boy; the early
lines of grey in his hair; the way he
He knew I was worrying, and
the night before he left, as I
lay on my stomach and his
fingers wandered my tense
back and aching neck, he told
27
His hands worked their way from
my legs to my shoulders, finding
knotted muscles, teasing them loose
before he returned to my back. The
boots, sleeping bag, tent, would be
checked, every zip tried, every rope
wrong. I did not want to know any
more. I touched his always fast
growing stubble and I think I said,
“by the time you’re home you’ll
have a beard again, like every other
time.’ My fingers held the inch or
two of fat he had recently grown at
He stretched over me to switch on
the shaded lamp by our bed and
traced with his eyes every curve
of my face and the dimple on my
chin. “Why did he marry this
girl?” he said in a voice that
30
He ran his fingers through the
tangled mass of my hair.
“Almost at your waist Maya,
where will it have grown by the
time I am back?” Michael’s
hand wandered downward until
the way of my landlord,
who had a telephone.
They had found
Michael’s body after
three days of searching.
His body had a broken
ankle, which was no
doubt why he had not
been able to move to a
33
POINT OF VIEW
First Person
Point of View
LITERARY
DEVICES
Simile
• What I had not known was that his
need for the mountains was as
powerful as his need for me.
Paradox
• He was with me but not with me
Parallelism
• Anywhere else, the ground is too 37
CONFLICT
They defied their families to be
together

MAN VS. NATURE (Literal)


Michael died because of a
landslide in Roopkund
THEME
There is no place
like home.

Keep trying until


41
TITLE
IMPLICATION
The title hints at both
sanctuary and prayer. For
Maya, the hills offer a place
to hide – but for Roy, the
landscape itself – imperilled
44

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