One of the common elements in nearly all of them is the idea that a person goes through a symbolic, or sometime real, death before emerging into his new self. The story of Jonah is essentially the same. He hears God's voice again and then emerges determined to go to Nineveh and face his destiny. Even nature gives us clues to this spiritual reality of rebirth through death and resurrection. Rivers freeze in the winter then overflow in spring.
Seeds fall to the ground and are buried in the earth, where they lie dormant.
Then they put forth their shoots and live again. The mother bear goes into its cave to hibernate, then emerges with her cubs as the snows begin to melt. The caterpillar spins its cocoon and disappears, then flies away in a glorious new form. We even have the same thing in fairy tales, like Pinochio, the wooden boy who ventures inside the whale's belly to find his Father and thus become a real boy. He dies on the cross, defeated.