I made a fool of myself, that's what I did.

Per eNotes standards, students should be asking one question at a time, but I'll try to cover everything given the limited space.

"I'm a Fool" is a 1922 short story by American author Sherwood Anderson. The protagonist, who also narrates the story, leaves his hometown for Sandusky, Ohio to work at a racetrack as a "swipe" (someone who works with racehorses). I would describe his moral standards as somewhat lax but not non-existent.

The narrator, whatever his faults, is self-aware. He admits in the opening paragraph that he's behaved foolishly (just look at the title) and that this story doesn't make him look great. He's also aware that he's disappointed his family by leaving home and taking the racetrack job:

My mother cried and my sister Mildred ... stormed and scolded about the house all during the week before I left.

According to the narrator, he needed a job, and he had to leave home to get one, which shows some responsibility.

The narrator's biggest moral failing, and the one which gives the story its title, is that in an effort to "put up a good front," he acts above his station by buying expensive cigars and, upon meeting a girl he likes, lying about his family:

I said my name was Walter Mathers from Marietta, Ohio, and then I told them the smashingest lie you ever heard. What I said was that my father owned the horse About Ben Ahem.

Finally, what may be shocking to a 21st-century reader is his (and Anderson's) casual use of the n-word, even if he is friendly with several of his black co-workers. Pretty mean, if you ask me.