Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Overcoming the Monster
Anticipation Stage and "Call"
Very soon after the story starts, Dan dreams of the frightening Grim Reaper beckoning him. Boom, there's our monster: Death himself. The dream hints that a white-haired dude is the answer to Dan's fear of his own mortality—and sure 'nuff, the young man then meets Socrates, who seems straight out of the dream.
Dream Stage
Dan trains under Socrates, learning the warrior's way. The youth is meditating, clearing his mind, and basically, bettering himself. He just might show his fear of death what's up after all.
Frustration Stage
Arguably Dan's motorcycle accident—at the start of Chapter 4, midway through the book—is the frustration stage, since Dan is nearly killed, i.e. nearly defeated by death. Pretty soon, though, he's back on his feet and training for about three more chapters. Gonna getcha, fear o' death.
Nightmare Stage
We watch Dan, leading a mediocre life, look and look for happiness/enlightenment, but ever unable to find it. He's getting older, and it seems that maybe he never will become truly happy. In other words, Death will have the last laugh, as Dan won't have lived a fulfilling life. Dan sells everything and heads into the mountains, determined to find an answer. So, clearly, here comes the final battle. And indeed, he plunges from a precipice, skull shattered. Looks like Death has won.
The Thrilling Escape from Death, and Death of the Monster
But miraculously enough, Dan is observing his own death—his own decomposition over thousands of years. He sees that death is nothing to be feared, for he's more than his mortal body; he's one with everything, the great Consciousness that is the whole shebang. He returns to life, liberated. He dances gleefully, marries a woman named Joy, and lives unreasonably happily ever after.