Book Debate!

Please disqualify my opponent for plagiarism.Here is an excerpt from sparknots.com on the theme of "the limits of knowledge. I have underlined phrasing which appears identically in my opponent's previous round:As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is always limited and insufficient. When it comes to Moby Dick himself, this limitation takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is inevitably futile and often fatal.My opponent is not merely summarizing an explanation given elsewhere, he is copying another source nearly word for word, making only minor changes by substituting in synonyms and leaving the overall structure in tact. He offers none of his own analysis on this topic and does not even cite the original source. This is plagiarism plain and simple and I insist that voters vote Con on Sources and Conduct, and determine their argument votes with extreme prejudice.Pro, I know you are a high school student and I hope when you write papers for your classes this is not the method you take. Not only is this unethical and lazy, but you are failing to learn important skills in synthesizing source material to create your own work.On to my argument:Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald1. Dense layers of symbolism and motifsThe novel can be read as a commentary on the American Dream, contrasting difference in behavior between classes and economic locations, studying what that Dream means to differen individuals, and what the pursuit of the Dream can cost.One of the most easily recognizable symbols in the book is the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Gatsby views this light from his home on the West Egg, the Egg associated with "new wealth," while the light is located on the East Egg, which is where the "old money" or the established upper class live. The green light then represents Gatsby's hopes. Gatsby wants Daisy (or at least his mental cosntruction of Daisy and what she represents) and he wants to be in the upper class. Yet all of this is just a faint green light across a great body of water. It is out of reach and always will be. Gatsby's (and perhaps all versions of it) American Dream is elusive and a misplaced desire. Gatsby yearns for the gren light in a very literal way- it becomes the things he wants. In the same way many versions of the American Dream are this- misplaced desires. This is a common criticism of materialism, that we come to want things as stand ins for our true desires.As we can see, this symbol is multifaceted and goes a long way toward providing insight into Gatsby and his situation. Yet this is just one symbol in what many people consider to be the Great American Novel. I could offer similar analysis of the symbols of East and West Eggs in relation to the Westward expansion of the U.S. and traditional understandings of class and Western/Eastern, or how the Valley of Ashes represents a critique of industrialization and materialism.2. Prose style is poetic and elegantI would like to quote here a passage from the end of the Great Gatsby to illustrate the poetic qualiy of Fitzgerald's writing. The passage describes the in character looking out over the summer homes where the novel takes place:"Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."We see here an incredible description of the forceful beauty of North America in the eyes of European sailors coming from a tamed land into an untamed world. The text superposes this vision of opportunity and natural beauty with the result of this opportunity: homes that lay empty for 9 months of the year, homes built only to be used to satisfy the leisure time excesses of the upper class. The real power of this passage lies simply in the forcefuless of the description of a new world full of possibility. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Fitzgerald's commentary on what we have done with that opportunity, the passage still forces one to reflect on what America appeared to be in the eyes of European sailors and what America appears in the eyes of those sailor's progeny.