What is a protagonist? The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text. Is it possible to insert a protagonist into the story? John Carreyrou’s true crime book Bad Blood covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup headed by Elizabeth Holmes. However, in Chapter 19, “The Tip”, the perspective of the story shifted from a third person point of view with a sense of biography to a hero versus villain story of Thernoas the multi-billion company versus the newly introduced protagonist John Carreyrou himself, as a relatable and brave investigative journalist. Carreyrou introduces himself directly to the center of the story, narrates the logic line of his journalistic investigation, and highlights the challenges he met while finding out the truth with crucial evidence.
The definition of the Protagonist includes being the major character in the story. To implant the Carreyrou into the story, the author introduced an important source in Chapter 18, Columbia pathologist Adam Clapper. Clapper proposed to Carreyrou to investigate the Silicon Valley prodigy Elizabeth Homles and her company Theranos. One of the most important contributions from Clapper to Carreyrou stated, “Two weeks after our initial conversation, [Adam Clapper] put me in touch with Richard and Joe Fuis, Phyllis Gardner and Rochelle Gibbons.” (225) All of the characters Clapper mentioned above were the people who have formal or personal conflicts with Holmes. The Fuiszes were sued by Holmes for misappropriating a Theranos patent and using that information to file his own medical analyzer patent. Gardner, as a Stanford professor, was one of the first people to be publicly skeptical of Holmes. (Baila 1) Rochelle Gibbons’s husband, the former Theranos employer Ian Gibbons, killed himself because of the pressure the company put on him after he resigned. The four people together offered parts of the puzzle pieces to the mystery of Theranos. As the person who needed to solve the puzzle, Carreyrou became the person who actually threatened the position of the then multi-billion dollar company Theranos. Carreyrou summarized himself at the end of the book, “[Death number] would have risen exponentially if [Theroanos] had expanded its [service machine]... when [Adam Clapper] reached out to me.” (293) The self-crowned main force in the downfall of Theranos, Carreyrou pointed out the possible terrible consequences if he had done nothing. This line as the official end of the book concluded the motives behind all actions from Chapter 19 to Chapter 24. The book started with Elizabeth’s name and ended with Carreyrou’s self-referencing pronoun. Connecting narrative perspective change in chapter 19, the quote implied the transition of the main protagonist from Holmes to Carreyrou. If the interaction between Clapper and Carreyrou cannot suggest the center of the narrative changed from Holmes’s life experience to Carreyrou’s investigative journalism, this quote concluded the shift to perfection.
A great protagonist usually can make the reader resonate with them. As this newly introduced main protagonist in Chapter 19, which is near the end of the book, Carreyrou presented himself as a relatable, yet brave investigative journalist. He depicted himself as a normal investigative journalist who is cautious and experienced, but not like a fictional character like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. He described his experience of finding Holmes’s experience suspicious by, “But medicine was different: it wasn’t something you could teach yourself in the basement of your house.” (224) Carreyrou used the sentence to question the reliability of this “self-made” billionaire’s experience. He drew a comparison in the later half of the quote to the self-made computer science billionaire stories. The logic line is very clearly explained and included a bit of sass, which can be implying mocking her for copying the success route of self-made computer science billionaire Steve Jobs, Holmes’s idol. The humorous approach Carreyrou used in describing his research process really helped build up the relatable investigative journalist image. One of the other characteristics Carreyrou described himself as is bravery and the need to explore the truth. He formed that image by writing, “This added an interesting wrinkle, [Carreyrou] thought: [Wall Street Journal] had played a role in Holmes’s meteoric rise by being the first mainstream media organization to publicize her supposed achievements.” (225) The Wall Street Journal, the journal Carreyrou works for, published the first article highlighting Holmes’s abilities and accomplishments. The brave investigative journalist showed that he would not mind being contrary to his coworkers and work friends. However, the image created by Carreyrou seems to be perfect with only work relations and no personality shown outside of the identity of an investigative journalist.
Carreyrou solved the “faults” of the image by depicting a strong, almost impeccable villain to show their difference in power, therefore adding more highlights to the true quality of the character. The challenges Carreyrou faced in the book were described as, “I suspected Theranos was putting screws to [Tyler Shultz], but I couldn't confront the company about it since he was a confidential source.” (248) The situation Theranos created sent Carreyrou into a dilemma. Showing the reader that the lonely investigative journalist did not have the power to compete with a multi-billion dollar company, no matter how perfect he was described as. The more threatening and damaging Theranos were depicted, the more related the readers would feel to Carreyrou in the book, facing the challenges. After silencing Carreyrou’s sources, Theranos sent “troops” into Carreyrou’s home base, described as “A meeting was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, home to the Wall Street Journal.” (249) The Theranos delegation was sent to silence the possible article from the origin. The accurate description of the time and place of the meeting created a sense of importance and formality for the reader and furthered the sense of Carreyrou being in trouble. The powerful villain-like image was stuck to Theranos, filled in the last piece the character Carreyrou self-described as.
Zhuangzi, an influential Chinese philosopher, wrote the following quote in his work. “I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” (Zhuangzi Zhuangzi) In the book Bad Blood, John Carreyrou tried to create a character of himself in the story. The character Carreyrou consisted of a lot of Carreyrou, the author’s traits. However, it is obvious that Carreyrou the author did not describe entirely based on his personal experience. He rather created the character also based on his goal, hopes, and standards for a great investigative journalist. Carreyrou created the “butterfly”, his character in the book. His depiction in the book influenced the analysis to see him as a relatable and brave investigative journalist. Is the analysis focused on the butterfly or the human being?

Citation:
Carreyrou, John, and Karlheinz Dürr. Bad Blood: Die Wahre Geschichte Des Größten Betrugs Im Silicon Valley. Penguin Verlag, 2022.
Baila, Morgan. "Phyllis Gardner Warned Everyone About Elizabeth Holmes — But No One Listened". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
Bruya, Brian (translator). (2019). Zhuangzi: The Way of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691179742.