At home with Thoreau

I'd like to think of Thoreau's writing as memoir because he does cover a specific time frame and series of events, but I'm not exactly sure his story fits into what I think of as modern memoir. To me, modern memoir is more of an examination of a certain time frame that is rife with problems that one has to overcome; problems that the individual has no control over. I usually think that there is some type of personal revelation that comes out of this, and although this exists here, I don't feel like the challenges Thoreau is facing are all that critical to self-development. No, that's not quite it-- the problems he faces are critical to his self-development, but what I'm trying to get at is that they are not do-or-die challenges he's facing.

For instance, in Karr's memoir, she's facing rape, alcoholism, family problems and disinterested parents. Same with Angelou McCourt faced poverty and alcoholism, etc. The problems Thoreau is facing deal with his need to disengage from society and find a simpler life, but this is not as necessary to his livelihood as overcome those other problems is for the other authors.
Now, I realize that Thoreau would argue that simplicity IS necessary to one's livelihood and self-preservation, but really.. in the face of the other memoirs we've read, his problems are pretty tame.

Another reason I question Thoreau's work as "memoir" is that I'm not exactly sure what he's learning about himself in the wild. It seems to me like he's already had some pretty well-formed opinions and ideas; his time at the pond is just testing them out and further reinforcing what he already knows about himself. To me, a literary memoir must have some sort of life-changing conflict that results in a growth process for the reader too. In our time it's almost impossible for anyone to do what he did, so it's unlikely that anyone will "learn" in the way Thoreau did.

However, for all of my inability to see his work as memoir, on of the elements of story that Thoreau utilizes is that of recalling memories. What is memoir, literally, it not that? his diligence to recording his observations in his journal no doubt helped with this, and the of detail he includes helps the reader see/feel the author's landscapes.