Notes

Pick one woman in history or fiction to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. What would you talk about? (100-250 words)

If I could speak with any woman for an hour, it would be Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place. Initially portrayed as crass, lazy, and apathetic, Eleanor’s character has grown into a caring, loving, and selfless person over the course of three seasons. The show's premise has her dying and waking up in the after-life, only to realize that her life had been hitherto meaningless and that she was a terrible person. Her desire to become a better person initially stems from a selfish need to feel better about herself, but as time goes on, she seeks the help of an ethics professor, Chidi Anagonye, and yearns to know what it means to be good. If I could converse with Eleanor Shellstrop, I would ask her what drove her to begin striving to become a good person, even when she was not expecting to be rewarded for it. I would ask Eleanor to elaborate upon every moment of her journey as she explores what it means to be “good.” Every episode of The Good Place deals with Eleanor’s struggle between what is right and what is easy, be it traveling miles to return a stranger’s dropped wallet or helping her absentee mother become a dependable girlfriend. As the days go on, Eleanor strives to become a better person time and again, and that is one quality that I aspire to exemplify.