Is this still true at the end?- I think this could be answered either way.
I think that Nick hates the way money makes people act and that the rest of the characters are so caught up in this that it causes the outcome (or tragedy) at the end of the book.
I would say that these lines suggest a sense of space with resonating power. You can see that they speak of freedom and liberty, and the vastness of space in the forest and the desert.
The Civil War was fought in 1861, so the answer would be D: 1800.