" Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view." In Henry David Thoreau's autobiography Walden, Thoreau informs us of his odyssey to enlightenment through communion through nature. The book is as much as a journal of his experiences as a guide in the pursuit of transcendental experience and self-reliance. The meanings of Walden pond are various, and near the conclusion of the book, this small body of water comes to symbolize almost everything Thoreau holds dear spiritually, philosophically, and personally. Walden pond is a very complex and indeterminable symbol in the book because perspectives plays an important role which makes it different things to even the same people.
Thoreau notices this change in the pond within the chapters titled pond. The pond he is describing seems to be entirely different than how many people would portray a pond, it is personified and it has a nature of its own.
All our concord waters have two colors at least, one when viewed and another, more proper, close at hand. The first depends more on light, and follows the sky. In clear weather, in summer, they appear blue at a little distance, especially if agitated, and at a great distance all appear alike. In stormy weather they are sometimes of a dark slate color. The sea, however, is said to be blue on day and green another without any perceptible change in atmosphere. I have seen our river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, both water and ice were almost green as grass. Some consider blue "to be the color of pure nature, whether liquid or solid." But. Looking down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the colors of both. Viewed from a hilltop, it reflects the color of the sky, but near at hand it is of a yellowish tint next to the shore where you can see the sand, then a light green (235).
