Résumé:
The thesis aims at investigating the theme of violence, its causes and its impact on
African Americans’ lives. The theme of violence will be studied theoretically and analyzed
through Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952). The thesis examines the theme of violence
from a cultural and psychological perspective. The study explores the hidden injuries of
racism on the oppressed. It also shows the difficulties that the African American man endures
because of whites’ stereotypes. The thesis demonstrates the protagonist’s experiences and
how he accepts his invisibility. At the beginning, the protagonist conforms to the whites’
stereotypes and obeys their orders in order to achieve his objectives. However, he realizes the
danger of obeying the whites and seeks an identity of his own. The study aims to show that
the acceptance of blackness is the primary way to achieve a self-definition.
