meaning of these great gatsby quotes!!?

Question

1) “Self-control!” Repeated Tom incredulously. “I suppose the latest thing isto sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife.Well, if that’s the idea you can count me out. . . . Nowadays people beginby sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throweverything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”Flushed with his impassioned gibberish, he saw himself standing alone onthe last barrier of civilization"

2) "“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people - his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God...and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented...Jay Gatsby...and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” (this quote is about Gatsby's character.. but what does it mean!?)

Answer 1

1. Tom Buchanan saw himself as a gate-keeper, in protecting a more conservative, rigid lifestyle from the social changes which were occurring during the Roaring 20's, after World War 1.

2. I would guess it means that Gatsby was ambitious, as he wanted to rise above his family background. His love of wealthy Daisy and his desire for her to accept him, drove him to succeed at all cost.

Answer 2

1. Tom was commenting on the social changes that happened in the 1920's. In the quote, he's a conservative that thinks he is alone in standing up to the freer society. He thinks the new society will break society down so much that black and white couples will be allowed. (which to the conservatives of the time, was equal to gay marriage to the ultra conservatives of today.) You get the feeling while reading the quote that the narrator thinks Tom is an idiot.

2. Gatsby hated his childhood. He hated his parents and upbringing so much that he invented himself and his background to suit his needs. He was pretty egotistical when he invented himself too.

Answer 3

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