I think reading both Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen showed the contrast in ideas during the Harlem Renaissance, especially with Hughes' poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and Cullen's poem "Heritage." In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Hughes accepts the history of blacks, he feels that it is important to acknowledge and celebrate everything black people have gone through in history. By him using "I" before every line, it is showing how he is uniting with the past and with all black people. I think if he would have used "they," it would have given the poem a sense of distance between the present and the past. Whereas in Cullen's poem, he rejects being associated with Africa. He feels that there has been too much time in between then and now to be able to connect. He does not know what Africa is, simply because he has never been there and cannot associate himself with it. In the first stanza he gives a stereotypical idea of what Africa might be like, not actually knowing if it is true or not.

I think the two poem contrast each other because while one poet, Hughes, is celebrating his heritage as an African American, they other is rejecting it. Like we read in "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" by Hughes, he feels that blacks should love who they are, and appreciate their skin color instead of trying to change it or try to become more like whites. I am not sure if Cullen wants to be white or does not want to be black all together, but he really does not want associate himself with African culture. This also reminds me of "The Negro-Art Hokum" by George Samuel Schuyler because he also felt that whites and blacks are the same and that there should not be a difference because everyone is essentially the same despite the color of their skin.