his confusion andreasoning his self explanations. A Week consists of ideas on how to live a successful andfull transcendental life by making use of "successive day journeys" toward "eternal day."Thoreau saw two paths that he approved of, that of the "hero" and that of the "poet."Schneider tells us, "his goal was to combine the two on the transcendental assumption thatthe greatest life is the greatest poetry, and vice versa" (37). Thoreau used the ideas that asa hero-poet he needed to discover that his own personal identity was created by his ownunique mind. At the same time he needed to realize his mind was part of God's. Thoreausays, "Let us wander where we will the universe is built round about us, and we are centralstill." This clearly shows us his transcendental view of the world being an extension of our minds (39). Walden was started close to two years after A Week and is considered the masterpiece ofthe two works. There is more confidence in unifying art and life and his views of life aremore confident. Richard Lebeaux observes, "By the end of his first year at Walden,Thoreau had finally succeeded in settling on and building a solid early adult life structure"(Schneider 45-46). In Walden, Thoreau uses the same circular pattern as in A Week, butthis time it is that Time of the year which is paralleled by that of day.Most of what he writes about in Walden is based on his first year living by the pond.Things such as his night in jail, trip to Mount Katahdin, and scientific studies of the secondyear he only touches upon. This helped to unify the book. This great unity creates apersona right in the beginning which you must become familiar with in order to understandthe rest of the book. The persona is created by the foundation of the cabin on land and bythe reader's extension which allows for a better view of life. Thoreau is far enough fromConcord to view it objectively, but he is not completely detached (Schneider 47). He tellsus hi...
