Saruman was first mentioned in The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien in Chapter 2, The Council of Elrond. It was where everyone meets up, including Bilbo, and talks about what to do next about the great evil rising, and what to do with the Ring. Gandalf tells his story about Saruman’s betrayal. And it was then it became clear that Saruman had crossed to the evil side: “‘I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered. ‘I liked white better,’ I said. ‘White!’ he sneered. ‘It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken’“(page 252). From this, we can see that Saruman’s morals and principles were diminished, and it seems from then on Saruman just gets worse and worse. I think the cloth changing colors is to show white means purity and wisdom, but it can change colors according to its wearer, and in this case, Saruman is shifting, so there are more colors, meaning something has invaded his purity to remain good, as he did later on try to hold Gandalf captive in Isengard. Luckily, Gandalf escapes and redeems himself and becomes Gandalf the White instead of Gandalf the Grey, since the wizards needed a new leader now that Saruman has gone evil. Moving on to The Two Towers, Saruman’s plans show that he is growing more and more selfish and power hungry. The reason for that is he has creatures like Orcs working for him to capture Merry and Pippin, because he thinks having them would somehow help him get closer to the Ring. Which proves to be a terrible plan because Merry and Pippin are brighter and braver than you think, for they eventually escape by offering a cruel Orc a bribe and taking advantage of the chance to run away; and now, we can see that Saruman is actually weakening. He still puts up a great fight when Treebeard and his Ents invade and destroy his territory, but when Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Theoden, and Eomer confront him, his voice doesn’t quite work on them, partly because of the strong wills of who Saruman is trying to waver, but also because it seems the evil has done him damage, too. Not to mention, Saruman is really prideful, which is one of the reasons why he’s not willing to take Gandalf’s offered chance to him: “his voice was shrill and cold. Pride and hate conquering him. ‘Will I come down?’ he mocked”, (Tolkien, page 568). His hatred and betrayal leads to Gandalf breaking his staff.