Walden

Thoreau attempts to explain the romanticism of the individual forging his own destiny. He uses the first person to convey what can be achieved with individual determination and sense of simplicity.

"In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. 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."