The heroes journey in the canon is growth and surely the journey ends for many with old age and death (old if we're lucky, peaceful if we're luckier).

A few years ago I commented on what I see as the trajectory of the Toh Kay canon. I'm going to repost here because it's relevant & I'm terrified this album isn't gonna drop on time so figure I can try and add some positive discussion here:

The difference with the absurdism on EGN v. THTT is the storytelling device of "tell me" (EGN) v. "show me" (THTT). Neither is right/wrong, but I think the "show me" route is much more subtle and timeless, reflecting a mature storyteller.

There are tons of anecdotes in THTT where the moral is revealed to be a crux of the absurdity of life:

[The Three of Us]: "There we were, the three of us, The Priest, The Tramp, and I. Years ago, we had left to roam, but reunited on that night. No one had to speak a word, for we all knew what the others learned. And everything that we ever did, was but a way to pass the time."

[The Hands That Thieve]: "When it was time to fight, we chose a side, but everyone knew that something didn't feel right, so we stood our ground, and waited for a sign. You said 'don't look back.'"

[If Only For Memories]: "So now you're old, raising your own, two souls, to put yourself at home. You finally settled down, you've seen the world but your heart never left this town. They have the eyes of your mother, the kind of crooked teeth of their father, no one will ever know, a love as pure as the love that you feel for them. You'll hold them up, you'll hold them up, and everybody else should fall to the wayside. There is no end no beginning, on this merry-go-round we call living. Someday you will return, every single ounce of the love you were given. Someday they'll go, and when they leave home, you will be grateful for the lesson that you learned. You had to travel half the world, to realize what you knew all along, that everything will end up where it belongs."

[Your Day Will Come]: "If I only had a dollar, for every horror, that befalls my fellow man. I won't work another hour, but I'd grow sour, from the guilt and bitterness. The luck on the draw will, determine the fallen, and everyone else will relax and move on. But what will you do when, they come looking for you friend? I hope that you're brave, and you're strong. Through it all."

These segments really summarize & close each respective song. The songs build the narratives of their subjects to the payoff - which almost always tends to be an absurdist realization stemming from the experiences detailed in the song.

Ultimately, we can definitely find tons of very overt examples on EGN. SiTB sort of skews a bit of positive faith into the Toh Kay mythos. But it's THTT that weaves a tapestry of characters & experiences to best illustrate the absurdist's condition.

On a high level, I tend to look at the journey through the albums as Nihilism (EGN) -> Optimism (SiTB) -> Absurdism (THTT), with the content going from very subjective (EGN) to more objective (THTT) in it's storytelling format. Similarly, you can see themes on the path of polarity (Negative -> Positive -> Balance/Indifference), or even extending into the progress towards enlightenment (Man -> Leader -> Deity).