Ant, that is an excellent analysis and I thought your notes in the breakdown about certain key plot points was spot on.
You are right: This is not your typical hero's journey, although Fern is certainly ON a journey. She does not have what we might call a Conscious Goal, rather she has a series of "destinations," each arising along the way, often by invitation or necessity. Hence, the kind of meandering narrative drive. She move around quite a bit, but - again - not your conventional, "This is my Want and I'm going after it" setup.
That said, it does echo the hero's journey in this respect: Her outer journey is really an inner journey. And I think you are right: Ultimately, it's about giving up Beau. She clings to those memories (the fact she keeps that storage unit in Empire is a clear symbolic sign of that).
It's instructive that the scene where she goes back to Empire and relinquishes the storage unit takes place AFTER what I consider to be the Final Struggle: Where she could settle down and live with Dave at his adult children's place. The wife of Dave's son literally invites Fern to stay. Dave invites her to stay. The house is perfect, there's a guest house out back.
And here, too, it's an unconventional take on the conventional culmination of a character's journey: Final Struggle. Instead of some sort of argument or battle, it plays out as a series of quiet... little... moments... Fern having awakened before the rest of Dave's family. Fern sits in the dining room. Walks from one lovely room to another. It's all so perfect! We're crying out inside, "Stay, Fern, stay!"
Nope, she refuses to change. Off she goes on the road. To Empire. Close out the storage unit. Get back in Vanguard and head off down the road.
That Final Struggle scene is the perfect example of J. Campbell said, as noted above: The outer journey is really an inner journey. Her struggle there is all internal. She doesn't say a word. All she does is take in the peaceful setting of this home... and reject it.
To me, it's a fascinating variation on theme in terms of the hero's journey as it does feature a pretty conventional structure, but puts a focused, human take on the paradigm. This is FERN'S JOURNEY, and she bends expectations to her will.
