History TookALevelInJerkass / Literature

* Literature/SherlockHolmes pretty famously became a bigger asshole than he ever was before from "The Empty House" and onward. Given that Doyle hadn't wanted to resurrect the character, it's hard not to see this change as a result of his bitterness.
* ''Literature/TheLastDaysOfKrypton:'' Tyr-Us and Gil-Ex are overly entitled and somewhat stiff in their first scenes, but they don't come across as completely nasty and irrational until after spending the better part of a year imprisoned in the Phantom Zone.
* Roger and Jack from ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''.
* Percy Weasley and Cornelius Fudge from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' both start out fairly nice, if a bit pompous then turn against Dumbledore. Of the two, Percy gets better. Fudge seemingly also returns to normal as of the 6th book when he loses his position as Minister Of Magic.
** Ron temporarily went through this in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', where he leaves Harry and Hermione on their own...only to come back and apologize. He makes up for this by destroying the Horcrux [[HatePlague that caused him to act like a jerk]].
** Even Harry himself isn't immune. His already-short temper gets a LOT worse in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' due to his age, his trauma, and being shunned by almost everyone he knows thanks to the Ministry slandering him.
* Paul Krendler is a FlatCharacter for his few appearances in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''. Then comes ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'' and Krendler is fleshed out as a careerist douchebag who has a misogynistic vendetta against Clarice Starling and sells out Hannibal Lecter in exchange for a bounty. The characterization carries over into the film adaptation. [[spoiler:Not carried over is Clarice's own turn, leading her to join Hannibal in eating Krendler's brains and becoming his lover.]]
* Adam Parrish, who was easily one of the nicest characters in ''The Raven Boys,'' had this happen in [[Literature/TheRavenCycle The Dream Thieves]]. He gets better by the end of the book and it's implied to be a result of [[spoiler: his sacrifice to Cabeswater and his father's abuse taking its toll on him]] but the contrast is still jarring. Heck, for most of the book he makes [[JerkAss Ronan]] look like a sweetheart in comparison.
* Nick Carraway from ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' becomes more and more sarcastic toward the end of the novel, since [[spoiler:the girl people tried to hook him up with turned out to be a fraud and his friend Gatsby got killed by his cousin's abusive husband's lover's widower. [[DeusAngstMachina Kind of a lot to swallow]]]].

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Reynard is portrayed far less sympathetically as the series goes on, committing acts that rankle even his best friend. This is one of the main features of the series, seeing as it is a Deconstruction of the LoveableRogue trope.
* Rand al'Thor in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' gets harder and colder as the series goes on, a combination of the trials of his position and his traumatic experiences (he's pretty mad as of book 7 and spirals downward into insanity from then on). [[FromBadToWorse This gets really bad]] in The Gathering Storm, where he starts alienating even his closest friends and allies[[spoiler: to the point of nearly killing his own father out of misplaced rage and paranoia]], before finally having a breakthrough while [[spoiler: having a good old therapeutic StrawNihilist rant and conversation with the voice in his head upon the site of the death of his last incarnation 3000 years ago]]..

* Onestar from ''Literature/WarriorCats''. He's a NiceGuy early on, but after becoming the leader of [=WindClan=], he becomes more of a jerk as he attempts to prove his Clan's independence.
** Clear Sky went through this after creating his community. In fact, he gets mad at Gray Wing for [[spoiler:accidentally killing Fox]]...though that was his own fault, for HE was the one who told Fox to attack him. Another sign that shows this is when he [[spoiler:kicks Jagged Peak out for breaking his leg]] and [[spoiler:refusing to take his son Thunder into the community]].
** Tallstar after [[spoiler:his father Sandgorse dies]]. He's so upset and angry about it that he takes it out on the rogues...especially Sparrow, whom he blames for [[spoiler:Sandgorse's death]]. Fortunately, Sparrow tells him the entire truth, and Talltail (which he was called back then) apologizes.
** Ashfur during The Power of Three arc
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Oh, man! Many of the characters start out as relatively nice, and then become more and more like {{Jerkass}}es as the series goes on. Charles Martin notes in the book ''Vanishing Act'' that the Vigilantes are treating him with little respect, when they used to defer to his judgement before. Charles is hardly a saint himself in terms of behaviour. However, their attitudes come back to bite them hard in the book ''Deja Vu'', and they seem to have dropped the Jerkassitude (ha, ha!) by the book ''Home Free''.
* King Orrin in the Literature/InheritanceCycle. He begins as a somewhat dissolute, but brave and intrepid young man and a vital component of the Varden (Orik even says that the Varden couldn't exist without his hard and dangerous work). However, stress, as well as feeling under-appreciated and overshadowed lead to a drinking problem in between ''Brisingr'' and ''Inheritance'', which leads to his taking a level in jerkass.

** Argubly [[TheHero Sam]] [[TheEveryman Temple.]] In the first book he's described as the third most kind person in a town of 400 kids (Mary and Edilio ''just'' beating him). He, even though he knew the risks, took on the task of looking after everyone in the FAYZ and was sympathetic and sincere to all the kids, and didn't seem to have any alterior motives of all but to make sure everyones safe. he didn't ''want'' to be the leader per se, but he wanted to help people through their problems and didn't ask for anything in return, even though the kids were usually complete asswipes to him. Fastforward to ''FEAR'' and he's (in no particular order); cheated on his girlfriend and then tried to blame it on her, made out with a girl nearly 4 years younger than him, tried to pressure his girlfriend into non-consensual sex, refused to save the town unless the dying folk acknowledged that they "needed him", told his best friend that he didn't care about anyone and got drunk on the illegal booze '''HE''' outlawed. Justified in that, 9/10 of the people there are complete douches too, and after spending so long in such a [[CrapsackWorld terrible environment,]] you can't ''really'' blame him if it rubbed off on him too.
** Another debatable one is [[TeenGenius Astrid Ellison]]. She started the series with [[SoapboxSadie very strong morals]] which she loyally stuck to, and often was the one to break up fights and encourage equality between the freaks and the normals. Sure, she had a few jerkass moments [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation which might or might not be justified]], but she certainly wasn't a shit head to half the magnitude or consistancy as 90% of Perdido Beach, and may even of been a rolemodel to real life girls. Then she got seriously, seriously bitchy. It was pretty bad in ''LIES'', when she humiliated Mary by telling the entire town about her bulimia just to distract from the fact she lied to the entire town, but ''PLAGUE'' just took the trope up to 11. [[spoiler: throwing her brother out of a window]] might be the most exaggerated example of this trope. Now; did she get better or worse during ''FEAR''? [[BrokenBase That's the real question.]]
** [[GenkiGirl Brianna]] could qualify. In book 1 she was a sweet, somewhat hyper but nice girl. In book 5, she's a mouthy, egocentric borderline sociopath.

* ''Literature/TortallUniverse''
** Sarai Balitang of the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet''. She stops being NiceToTheWaiter in the second book, stops listening to anyone else's opinions and accuses them of being complacent and unwilling to act (unable to realize they're actually plotting revolution), and at one point threatens Aly with a riding crop. Easily justified [[spoiler:by the fact that her father died horribly in the first book and she's not in a place where dealing with that properly can be done]].
** In ''Literature/BekaCooper'', Beka's mentor Tunstall goes from being the paternal and easygoing half of his and Goodwin's OddCouple in ''Terrier'' to a grouch who goes out of his way to antagonize the group's NiceGuy mage at any opportunity and harshly reprimands Beka for getting emotional over the fact that they can't do anything for a ''giant heap'' of brutally murdered people. Probably due to the insecurities that come with him aging, career prospects, and the nasty comments his relationship with Lady Sabine attracts. [[spoiler:Those are the reasons he turns ''traitor'', after all.]]
* In the ''Literature/FortunesOfWar'' series, the main character Piper treats her fellow officer Judd "Scanner" Sandage much more abrasively in the second book, ''Battlestations!'', than in the first book, ''Dreadnought!''. She uses her size advantage to physically intimidate him, is almost verbally abusive at times, and generally treats him like crap.

* In ''Literature/EthanFrome'', most of the narrative is Ethan telling the narrator about how he was unhappily married to a hypochondriac shrew named Zeena and longed to be with her sweet and vivacious cousin Mattie instead. When Ethan finishes telling his story, he invites the narrator into his home where one of the two women there begins loudly complaining about pretty much everything possible. We're led to believe that this woman is Zeena, until Ethan introduces her to the narrator as ''Mattie''. As another character points out, being rendered unable to walk by a horrific accident and consequently forced to live with the woman who hates her for trying to steal her husband away will sour even the sweetest of dispositions over time.

* ''Literature/EllenAndOtis'': In ''Otis Spofford'', Ellen Tebbits isn't nearly as nice as she was in the first book, as she teases Otis for his pink underwear.
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg. He's not a consistently nice person, but throughout the first six books, has brief WhatYouAreInTheDark moments. This is best shown in ''Cabin Fever'', where despite Rowley getting him in trouble for something they both did, he decides not to get Rowley involved and accepts the punishment himself. ''Wrecking Ball'' severely increases Greg's regular bad behavior, featuring him celebrating a relative's death and selling broken toys to children. ''Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid'' seems dedicated to showing him as an awful person, abandoning Rowley alone in the woods at night, preventing him from using the bathroom during a sleepover, and then flushing his toys down the toilet.