Walden

Over the course of Walden, Thoreau treats Walden Pond as a metaphor for the ever-changing human spirit. He greatly admires the pond for its exceptional “depth and purity” (301), as well as its ability to reflect the subtle changes in its surroundings. He appreciates the ways the pond serves as a “perfect forest mirror” (323) for natural change. He also offers the pond’s transitions throughout the seasons as a metaphor for human resiliency.

Walden Pond is also a metaphor for the commingling of human civilization and the natural world. Thoreau writes that the pond is surrounded by white stones that were likely cut by railroad workers “obliged to pile them up in walls on both sides of the railroad” (313). He also describes the ice-cutters attempting to capitalize on the only resource Walden Pond offers, wryly noting that much of the ice melted before it could be sold. Thus, the pond is an amalgam of nature’s virtue and civilization’s attempts to capitalize on it. Through his recurring imagery of regrowth and renewal—ending poignantly with spring’s arrival and the melting of Walden’s ice—Thoreau suggests that nature always triumphs in the end.