One of the first things that Thoreau touches on is his connection to himself. If you decide to go and live in the woods, you have to be pretty comfortable being alone. In Economy, he writes:

We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this by the narrowness of my experience.

What this rather long quote is trying to say is that you can only see things from your own perspective. Thoreau is right when he says “We commonly do not remember...”, because it can seem like our own experiences are universal. The fact that Thoreau can identify this is impressive, but it also speaks to his reflective skills. He shows that he understands the importance of reflection enough to speak about from what perspective he sees everything. He laments at the narrowness of his experience, but he also realizes that it’s crucial to know that narrowness well. There is nobody that Thoreau knows as well as himself, and he shows us why that connection is so important. He focuses on what goes on internally, and that’s what makes his work so interesting.

Another thing that Thoreau talked about was the questions that we all have to ask ourselves at some point or another. Near the end of the book he writes,

The same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability by his word and his life.

Thoreau is trying to say that everyone has their own answers to the existential questions of life, because we all have our own backgrounds and experiences. Everyone has an answer to these questions, whether it is complete or incomplete. We all have to face the questions like “Who am I?” at some point in our lives. These are the questions that “disturb and puzzle and confound us”. Thoreau is trying to say that people who are unafraid to tackle these questions, to take the time to travel deep with in themselves and dig through their minds, tearing out fragments of answers, are people to be admired. They are the “wise men”, who can’t answer the questions for us, but will guide us on our way. Thoreau is one of these wise men. Although he can be critiqued, he is telling us the importance of internal reflection, of finding your place in the world through the battlefield of your mind. Thoreau is selling a great reason to figure you out yourself between these pages, but still he has more to say.

Thoreau also touches on the effect of the outdoors on reflection. In one of his more famous quotes:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

There’s a lot to unpack in this quote, but I’ll stick to what it’s saying about reflection. Thoreau says he wants “to front only the essential facts of life.” He’s fed up with the society he lives in. He sees it’s faults. He sees people living unhappy lives. He sees all of the unnecessary things clouding the world, and he’s tired of it. He wants to live in a peaceful place where he could reflect on what life is, and that’s nature. He wanted to live, truly and happily. Thoreau went to the woods for the very purpose of reflection. He knew there were questions that he needed to answer, and he went to the place where he thought he could answer them. The entire book of Walden is Thoreau going into the woods and finding meaning, finding life. He saw the power of reflection, and he used it to come up with some of the most famous works in the English language. That is the power of reflection.

A lot can be sad about Thoreau. Some people are for him, some are against him. You might disagree with his answers, you might not, but he does do one thing well, he makes you think. Once you finish Walden you’ll have Thoreau’s answers to the big questions, but the only way to find yours is through hard work, patience, and reflection.