Night of Light's plot dramatizes how transcendental forces can unlock the true heroic self trapped inside even the most alienated antihero. This motif of nearmagical transformation is very common in popular literature, which often reassures us of the ever-present possibility of radical change for the better. However, Farmer's use of this motif in combination with a matriarchal religion indicates that the most significant precedents of Night of Light are more mythic than literary. In particular, this novel echoes the central thesis of each of two major works of mythic criticism, Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) and Robert Graves's The White Goddess (1948).

Campbell believes that despite their infinite variety of incidents and settings, the myths of the world offer only a limited number of responses to the riddle of life. He characterizes the most important of these as the "monomyth" or the story of...