Bright Future: Cathedral senior excels in Scholastic Writing Awards

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 20, 2019

 

NATCHEZ — Who said science buffs cannot love English, too?

Mallory Hinson, a senior at Cathedral High School and a medical enthusiast, entered the Mississippi Scholastic Writing Awards competition in December, and earned second place for her essay and will be attending an awards ceremony next month at the Eudora Welty House and Garden in Jackson, she said.

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Hinson’s prize-winning essay, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Puritan Society,” is a critical analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter” that tips a hat to the famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” she said.

Hinson said she tried to determine which of the main characters’ sins were the worst between Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Hester Prynne and ultimately concluded that Dimmesdale was the worst sinner — even though he is a minister in the story.

“Even though Chillingworth had the most evil behind his actions, I decided Dimmesdale’s sins were the worst because he caused the most damage to other people,” Hinson said.

Reading is one of Hinson’s many hobbies, she said, alongside spending time with her friends and family, going to church at St. Mary’s Basilica and First Baptist Church in Natchez and playing sports.

“Starting in middle school and early high school, reading difficult novels and writing essays were some of the things we had to learn to do,” she said, “but as time went on it started to just come naturally to me, especially with the way Mrs. (Jean) Biglane and my other English teachers have taught us. … Mrs. Biglane made it easy.”

Hinson said a couple of her favorites are William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

“I don’t know why I like it so much,” Hinson said. “I just enjoy Shakespeare a lot, and if you haven’t read ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ then go read it. It’s very good. … They’re both kind of dark in the way they’re written … and so deep. It’s astounding.”

Hinson is the daughter of Chris and Lee Hinson and is a member of the Science Olympiads, Key Club, Peer Ministry, National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, Science Quest and the basketball team.

When she graduates, Hinson said she plans to study biochemistry with a concentration in pre-med at Mississippi State University.

“I’m hoping to become a doctor,” she said. “I want to help people, and I grew up in a healthcare-based family. My mom is a nurse at Merit Health Natchez and my brother is a cardiologist. … It’s an interest that has been embedded in me from a young age and has continued to grow.”