Took A Level In Kindness / Literature

• Prince Garrid from Tales of the Frog Princess, a Ladykiller in Love, became a genuinely better person so he could be with Li'l.
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • Eustace Scrubb from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader starts off as a whiny self-obsessed jerk, but after getting turned into a monstrous dragon due to his own greed, he grows out of it and becomes much more helpful and considerate as a result, earning a transformation back into human from Aslan. In the later Narnia books, Eustace becomes unambiguously one of the heroes, transformed by this experience on the Dawn Treader.
  • Edmund Pevensie goes through one in the first book. At first, he lies to his siblings about having seen Narnia, not to mention wanting to sell them out in exchange for Turkish Delights. He grows out of it after The White Witch get angry with him for not bringing his siblings to her castle and then seeing her turn animals to stone for celebrating Aslan's return.
• In That Irresistible Poison by Alessandra Hazard, Ksar was a total douchebag to Seyn, belittling and mocking him, and treating him like a child. But Ksar grows to love Seyn and cherish him.
• Ronan Lynch from The Raven Cycle starts out as a brooding, violent, selfish punk who has frequently been described as "cruel." Calla even calls him "the snake." He frequently makes rude comments, mouths off to everyone, and even Adam can barely stand to be around him for most of the first book. In The Raven Boys he does about two nice things: adopting Chainsaw and punching Robert Parrish in the face. Come the second book and we see his genuine love for his family and his friends and he becomes a lot more considerate and helpful to others while being shown to have a strong moral center. A healthy dose of POV chapters and CharacterDevelopment will do.
• Happens a lot in the Chalet School series. Girls who start off as bitchy, sulky or standoffish will often come to learn the error of their ways and become nicer people after being introduced to the ways of the school, or getting a good ticking-off from one of the mistresses. And if that doesn't work, there's always a handy accident; for instance, Eustacia Benson injures her back after running away from the school, is confined to a wheelchair for some time and becomes a much nicer person.
  • This is a common trope in series about girls in high school or college, such as the Betty Wales and Grace Harlowe series.
• Peter Pan in Scarlet takes it for granted that Slightly, formerly a condescending, cowardly little snob, grew up to be kind, sensitive and "as gentle as a lamb". Of course, the original novel and the various drafts of the play implied that Slightly had his ego brought down to size after the boys left Neverland, and in Peter Pan in Scarlet he's recently been widowed, so suffering probably sweetened him a little.
• Harry Potter
  • James Potter started out as a huge Jerk Jock and then eventually became Head Boy in his seventh year and later marries and dies for Lily Evans.
  • Dudley Dursley spends the first five books growing up to be a spoiled bully who led a gang of delinquents and beat up other children. After Harry saves him from a Dementor, he makes several honest (if awkward) gestures of friendship, including leaving a cup of tea for Harry and saying that he doesn't think Harry is worthless.
  • Draco Malfoy goes through a rather subtle example in the last few books. For most of the series he's a bully who constantly tries to make life difficult for Harry and uses his father's wealth and influence to have his way. After he foolishly leaps at the chance to join Voldemort and spends the sixth and seventh books learning that he and his parents are constantly in danger of outliving their usefulness, he (and they as well) drop all interest in supporting Voldemort and his plans for pureblood wizard supremacy and focus instead on the family getting through alive. This includes a point in the seventh book where Harry and his friends have been captured and brought to the Malfoy Manor and Malfoy is asked to identify them. While it's implied he can tell who it is, he only says that it "might" be Harry, Ron, and Hermione and that he can't be certain. The epilogue shows him nodding at Harry as they see their kids off for Hogwarts and Word of God says that he raised his kid to be better than he was.
  • Percy Weasley, who disowns his family for two years and was quite snobbish beforehand, apologizes in the last book and admits to his wrongdoings. He quickly makes up with his family and takes Fred's death very hard.
• Matteo in Someone Else's War, who goes from a snobby, condescending brat to a loving young man who will risk his life and compromise his ideals if it means saving his friends.
• The title character of Artemis Fowl gradually does this over the course of The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, briefly reverting because of a mind wipe, and finishing the transformation in The Opal Deception.
• From Michael Grant's cult-followed GONE series, Diana Ladris starts out a manipulative, lying, apathetic sociopath, and slowly moulds into the token good teammate of Caines team and eventually does a Heel–Face Turn and joins the protagonists in FEAR it doesn't last long. Only took her five 600-page books, too.
• Warrior Cats
  • Sandstorm used to be such an Alpha Bitch to Firestar when he joined ThunderClan, but after he saves her from falling over the gorge, she becomes a better cat and falls in love with him. She still has her snarky moments, though.
  • Blackstar also, believe it or not. While Onestar becomes more of a jerk as the series goes on, Blackstar (a gruff battle-scarred cat) becomes something like an old kindly veteran who still has a gruff side.
• Taran, of The Chronicles of Prydain, goes through several levels of kindness, thanks to massive amounts of Character Development. In the first book, he's a whiny Designated Hero who gets into trouble, is rude to Gurgi and Eilonwy because they annoy him, and tries to attack Flewdry Flam with a sword simply because he was expecting someone else to be waiting for him. By the end of the series, he has become far more patient and kind, proving himself to be worthy of the title of High King.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Rana is introduced as a bitter recluse that Does Not Like Men but in this book she drops both of them, has a has a warmer personality and is Happily Married.
• Like the above example, Trini of A Brother's Price Does Not Like Men, and for good reason, but when she gets married she is perfectly kind towards her husband. Much of her initial rudeness towards him is due to suspecting he might be like her deceased husband.
• A New Dawn: Kanan starts off the book callous and deliberately uncaring about anyone except himself. By the end he's softened greatly, and the eventual results of this are seen six years later.
• In The Stormlight Archive:
  • Kaladin starts the series as a disillusioned, broken man who callously buries another slave's hopes when the latter tries to get him to lead an escape. After he's Driven to Suicide and brought back from the brink by Syl, he becomes a better person, slowly morphing into A Father to His Men for Bridge Four. In the next book, he regresses a bit when he has to deal with the man who broke him in the first place, but he finally manages to let the hatred go and becomes a far nicer person as a result.
  • Szeth's pacifist nature clashing with what his faith forces him to do lead to his sanity slowly slipping, and the process accelerates when it turns out that he didn't have to kill anyone after all, so when Kaladin last sees him in Words of Radiance, the man's reduced to a violent maniac. In Edgedancer, though, it seems like he's come to terms with his Heel Realization and he not only spares Lift, but offers her some heartfelt advice.
• Toklo from Seeker Bears had always been grumpy, but the second (and final) arc called Return To The Wild shows him in better moods. He's still obtuse and grumpy, but he's fully accepted his friends and who they are, and he's become more optimistic and idealistic.
• Aeduen of The Witchlands grows into a far nicer and warmer person than he used to be as he travels - and, by extension, bonds - with Iseult.
• King Gilgamesh from The Epic of Gilgamesh ends the story a much more considerate and restrained ruler than he started out as, making this trope Older Than Dirt.
• Annabelle Stiffarm, the girlfriend of Kennedy "Foxy" Cree on the Montana reservation in A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, starts off being as much a Jerkass as Foxy is to his cousin Rayona Taylor, but later on at the rodeo, after Rayona had been separated and living with the Dials for a time while working at Bearpaw Lake State Park, Annabelle becomes a bit nicer to Rayona and ends up scolding Foxy for being too drunk to ride in the rodeo.
• Johannes Cabal: The titular Necromancer begins the series as a soulless Villain Protagonist and ends it as an Anti-Hero with a small circle of friends, even showing mercy to the Big Bad. After reclaiming his soul, he surprises even himself in Book 2 by risking his life to save Leonie from a trap. In Book 4, he bemoans the return of his conscience, to his brother's amusement and relief.
• In The Underland Chronicles, Luxa starts out haughty, mocking, and prejudiced. Before the end of the first book, it's clear that it's partly a coping mechanism for all the losses she's already experienced in her life, and partly the influence of Henry. She doesn't get better all at once, but improves over the series to the point that in the last book, she consults with Temp, and offers a bond to Ripred, forging an alliance between the two species that have been fighting since humans first came to the Underland.
• Semiosis: Stevland the Plant Alien starts out quite aloof towards the humans and convinced of his own superiority, but comes to see himself as part of their community, builds friendships with them, and even develops a sense of humour.
• Pride and Prejudice: While Mr. Darcy always had a noble heart, it was often concealed by the pride and prejudice, as well as Brutal Honesty, that came from his upper class upbringing. Through his humiliating proposal to Elizabeth and realization how his behavior comes across, he becomes more humble and self aware.
• Lord Wyldon is much friendlier in the fourth Protector of the Small book than he is while he is overseeing Kel's training. Part of it is that he's no longer in the role of a Drill Sergeant Nasty now that Kel is a fellow (if vastly junior) knight. However, it's also because his own sense of honor forced him to admit how unreasonable he had been in his prejudice against her, and how he had consequently allowed incredibly unfit trainees to reach the point of public failure because he was so focused on making things difficult for the girl. He's also relieved to be free of the shackles of his training master job, which he only took because the king asked him to do it, and is much happier being the lord protector and commander of his own people.
• Hollow Kingdom (2019):
  • S.T. starts off with little respect towards non-humans, refusing any help not directly related to his goals, and his narration is chock-full of profanity and snarking. He mellows out over the course of the story; he grows to appreciate other animals, builds up a community dedicated to saving domestic creatures, and his fiery inner monologue is dialed back a few notches.
  • The two chapters told from the perspective of Genghis Cat see the feline go from openly pissed off about The One Who Opens Doors entering his territory to developing a protective instinct towards him, with him and his kittens often lounging alongside the orangutans.
• Peek-a-Boo Poo: While Alfie wasn't mean in the first book, he still went on a spree of pooping in random places. By the next book, however, he's much more mature, considers his past habits to be an embarrassing secret, and wants to teach his sister how to poop in the right place.
• The titular character in The Adventures of Pinocchio starts out as a selfish Bratty Half-Pint who doesn’t appreciate what others do for him and would rather go off and do whatever he wants, as the story goes on and he suffers a series of mishaps and humiliations after his self-centered behavior gets him into trouble over and over, he slowly becomes a better person and by the end of the book he eventually earns the right to become a real boy.
• Bazil Broketail: Count Trego gradually turns from vain, myopic nobleman convinced of his superiority over foreigners and common people — women in particular — to a genuinely well-meaning, genial and open-minded knight. When we meet him for the first time, he can hardly stand the fact that women participate in a strategic meeting, as he deems them suitable only for housework, raising children and looking pretty. Later, though, he has no trouble cooperating with Lessis and grows a great deal of respect towards her after personally seeing her in combat.
• In Rafe Martin's Birdwing, Ardwin grows from a jerk who wants to lose his best friend so he can seduce a woman they're both friends with to a thoughtful person.
• Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol was a rich old curmudgeon who is taught a lesson and learns to be a good guy and appreciate the joy of Christmas.
• Magic: The Gathering: At the start of Time Streams, Urza is an aloof, paranoid, and callous man convinced that he knows best and that any sacrifice made in the name of protecting Dominaria from the Phyrexians is warranted. This is best shown in his reaction to the Tolarian Academy's destruction: he only manages to save fifteen of the hundreds of people living at the academy, himself included, but because one of those people is his personal assistant Mage Master Barrin, and because the destruction of Urza's inventions means they'll be kept out of Phyrexian hands, Urza views this as a good and equitable trade. The events of the book force Urza to acknowledge the human cost of his actions, learn some humility, and become a better person. By the end of it, Urza has gone from keeping the sentient golem Karn at arm's length and treating him like a disposable tool to treating him with affection, he's reading his late wife's account of The Brothers' War — which he had dismissed as crock in the previous novel — with clear interest and wistfulness, and he deigns to join the students in a dance, something he never would have done back when he was still the unapproachable headmaster of the academy.
• The Mr. Men series has a lot of these:
  • Mr. Uppity starts off his story as a Rich Bitch with no friends in the town he lives in, causing everyone to call him "Miserable old Uppity", but then he meets up with a goblin who punishes him by shrinking him every time he's rude to someone and and by the end of the book, he becomes far more of a nicer guy and makes friends with the people of Bigtown.
  • Mr. Mean starts off his story refusing to show any kindness and gives his brother coal as a gift, when he meets a wizard that transforms his body parts into other vegetables every time he's mean to somebody, he becomes a lot more generous by the end of the book and fixes up his house.
  • Mr. Grumpy is, well, a grumpy man who destroys a book and pulls flowers out of his garden because like doesn't like them and physically harms Mr. Happy when Mr. Happy tells him that people like him need to change their ways. After getting tickled by Mr. Tickle whenever he's rude to somebody, he calms down his anger and at the end of the story, he only tears one page out of a book instead of all of the pages.
  • Little Miss Bossy starts off her story bossing people about and telling them not to do stuff that they like doing. She eventually stops when a wizard makes her wear boots that don't listen to her and make her march across the countryside.
  • Mr. Grumble starts off complaining about everything regardless of whether or not it's a lovely day and complains about people having fun at a party. He soon stops when a wizard transforms him into a pig every time he grumbles.
  • Mr. Rude starts off mocking people for their flaws and hurling insults at people while driving around in his car, he stops being rude when Mr. Happy pays him a visit and slowly but surely, he starts showing manners towards him.
• The Mummy Monster Game: In book 1, the story largely revolves around Josh undergoing character development, growing out of his obsession with always winning after realizing his attitude is a danger to himself and his family when they find themselves in an actual dangerous situation. It's also shown in his attitude towards the new kid in town — when they do an undeclared race, Josh doesn't care that the other boy fell off his skateboard. In the end, they meet up again, and Josh offers to just have a friendly skateboarding run alongside him.
• In Natasha Friend's "My Life in Black and White", Lexi is so beautiful that she is on her way to a successful modeling career. She is very popular and charming, but she has become vain, haughty, and self-obsessed with her looks and is viewed as an Alpha Bitch by many of the less popular students at her school. She becomes permanently disfigured in a car crash, and all her beauty is gone for good. She at first laments the loss of her beauty and struggles to adjust to going from being the popular school beauty to being a lot less attractive than her former popular, pretty friends and even some of the girls she used to tease for their looks. However, she becomes a much better person as she learns that she is more than just a beautiful face.
• The Reluctant King: Jorian goes through a lot of this, becoming wiser and more mature during his toils. When he ultimately learns that his beloved Estrildis found another paramour and got pregnant with their baby, he decides to let her live happily with him and wishes them both well, contrasting the very beginning of the novel where he swears to chop her hypothetical lover into ribbons.
• Schooled in Magic: Alassa starts out as an Alpha Bitch, who's a spoiled princess bullying Emily. They slowly become friends though, and Alassa turns into a nice young woman over time.
• The Silerian Trilogy: Ronall slowly goes from being an abusive, lecherous drunk and becomes a hero.
• Tell Me How You Really Feel: Rachel starts out pretty hostile and unkind to Sana, along with the people who work on her film project. Over time while getting closer to Sana she gets much nicer.
• The Trials of Apollo: The overarching plot of the series centers around Apollo growing out of his self-centeredness and maturing.
• Nils Holgersson from The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is a lazy, mischievous Bratty Half-Pint who torments animals just for fun. After a magical elf turns him only a few inches high and capable of talking to animals, and a flock of wild geese take him on a journey over Sweden, he learns humility and respect for nature, and becomes a kind and selfless person by the end of the book.

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