Hughes vs. Cullen

In response to Emily's post on the comparison between Hughes and Cullen, I too can see the distinct differences between the writing and idealogies of Hughes and Cullen. While Hughes sticks to his roots, and is proud to be of African descent, Cullen wants to push his association with Africa far behind him, as if he is ashamed of where he came from. To me, these two stances seem very extreme. For Hughes, I can understand the desire to be proud of who you are, but the only subject he is writing about is being black. This gets quite repetitive and will not gain the respect he probably would of wanted from other poets, both black and white. While Cullen, on the other hand, doesn't want to be who he is. This is also hard to respect and understand. Although there are rough circumstances in his way, I feel you should never wear a mask or pretend you are something you are not. If a middle ground could be found between these two poets, I think that poet would be very successful and interesting to read.