Vicious by V. E. Schwab Book Analysis

Monsters are made by their environment, which is proven when on average, 36% of serial killers suggest that they have experienced physical abuse. People are made into monsters by their environment. In V.E Schwab’s Vicious, Eli Cardale is a student who, while writing a thesis on Extraordinaries (EO), people with exclusive powers, became interested in becoming one himself. He found a way that involved an ice bath and EPI pens, and he succeeded. He quickly found his purpose as an EO, to kill other EOs. His justification for killing them is that EOs are unnatural and God does not approve of them.  He was raised to have religious beliefs, and they transferred into his adulthood. His father was a Minister, and he had his own flawed approach to parenting Eli. Eli, as an adult, was a product of his upbringing, and he was made into a monster by his circumstances as well as his opportunities. Circumstances such as parental abuse and religious fanaticism. Opportunities that developed into a God-like superiority complex, and the fact that he died and came back to life with regeneration as a cushion. 

When information about serial killers is released to the public, many times their history indicates that they were victims of abuse. Not all, of course, but some. Going back to the belief that monsters are made, environment shapes human beings. Eli Cardale’s environment as a child consisted of religion and abuse. “Eli tugged off his jeans… and finally his shirt, exposing a series of faded scars that hatched his back. ‘My father did it, when I was a kid’, he said softly” (Schwab 73). Abuse has strong effects on childhood development. For Eli, his childhood was looped in with religious motivators, and beliefs are also something that have strong effects on childhood development. Eli’s father normalized violence for him. Eli is not the only person who is permanently influenced by his father’s behavior, in How to Explain Serial Killers Who Come from Good Homes by Adam Janos, Terence Leary noted that “‘What we’re finding is a great, great preponderance of abuse amongst serial killers,’... ‘In every case I’ve looked at.. There’s some horrendous home situation’” (Janos). This shows that furthermore, abuse has an impact on the development of personality. Sadly, there are many cases where child abuse becomes cyclical, where the abused becomes the abuser. Eli’s father was a Minister, now he looks to God for every decision, every question, everything he needs guidance on. 

Along with abuse, God and religious trauma are common motivators for serial killers, as seen with Eli. Some believe that God is speaking to them or letting them know that what they are doing is in His name, which is the case with Eli. After asking God if he would take his power back, “He cut deeper through to bone, over and over, until the floor was red. Until he had given his life to God a hundred times, and a hundred times it had been given back” (Schwab 216). Babies are not born with prejudice, religious or otherwise, or a vendetta with a self-appointed license to kill. These prejudices and self-fulfilling prophecies are passed from person to person, parent to child.  Eli can regenerate his skin, and he chose to slice through his skin, straight to bone, over and over and over, solely to question God. Eli was raised to hand everything over to God, who he uses as a shield for all of his actions. This is an example of behaviors being learned instead of being innate. His father was a religious man and caused him harm, and now he is causing himself harm for God. “American citizens committed suicide mass suicide in 1978, because they were blindly obedient to this guy, their pastor… A man of God who becomes an Angel of Death” (Zimbardo 10:47-11:02). Eli, with the help of Serena, and EO who has mind control powers, had multitudes of people convinced that helping him was right. When placed in the ‘right’ set of circumstances, human nature seems to dictate that people unexpectedly fall into roles, and, in this case, Eli took very easily to playing God. Once given the opportunity to use his regeneration to whatever advantage he sees fit, he is cleared in his mind to go ahead and justify his actions in whatever way he sees fit. Furthermore, the people Eli and Serena had under their control can be compared with those who were influenced by the pastor.    

Babies are not born evil. Their experiences in life shape them into who they become.  Parents are the first and one of the biggest influences on this process.  Some babies are born into homes that are loving and supportive, and some are not.  When children are chastised and mistreated, they do not learn how to cope and handle their emotions in a healthy way. The way they grow up has everything to do with how they turn out. Their parents, their neighborhood, everything that surrounds them has a deciding factor in who they become.