Langston Hughes And Countee Cullen Analysis

Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen were both very influential people during the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout almost all of their writings on this subject they have had conflicting views and they have given contradicting advice to African-American writers and poets. They both have their own ideas on gaining success in America through poetry. Countee Cullen gives his advice through the preface in Caroling Dusk and he advises that since these black have grown up in the English culture they don’t truly understand the black vernacular. So in order to be successful, Cullen believes that they have to conform to the ways of White poets and blend in with their ways so people can’t discriminate based on the writing. Whereas Langston Hughes advises …show more content…
In the beginning of The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain Langston writes, “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself”. This means that the Negro artist should embrace the black vernacular because if he doesn’t none of his works will be great. Langston goes on to say that most middle class Blacks won’t be able to be great because they are brought up in a way that tells them to leave the vernacular. Therefore, mostly people from the lower classes in the vernacular will become great. Yet, Hughes says he doesn’t blame the young artist for saying “I would like to be a white poet” because he is a product of his surroundings. In this essay Hughes also touches on how “The Negro artist works against the undertow of sharp criticism… and unintentional bribes from the whites”. This puts the Negro in a hard position; to use the vernacular or to not use the vernacular, that is the question. Hughes says later in his essay that the Negro writer has to realize that “ [He or she] is a Negro—and beautiful” which is contrary to what Cullen says in his essay when he compares the negro culture to a