Two locations can be across seas or be a mile from each other, and still have the same dramatic differences in physical appearance and morals. For example, West Egg and East Egg, West Hartford and East Hartford, or even New York and Baghdad all have striking differences. It can be the location that affects people's attitudes or morals; but at the same time, the people and morals within the location can also affect people's lives. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Great Gatsby movie, are perfect examples of the effect of location and its people on someone physically and mentally. When one changes location, it can have a positive or negative affect; and unfortunately for Nick Carraway, it had a negative affect. For Nick, an innocent seeming place, easily changed into a hell of crushed dreams, death, and regret. Thus, the people within a location that have adopted the values of the community, can have a greater affect and influence on someone than the location itself. .
Nick Carraway arrives in West Egg from Chicago, expecting to have a simple life being a stockbroker. However, it turns out to be the complete opposite. Nick arrives as an innocent soul, who eventually gets tangled up with the greed, love, and competition of the Eggs. Nick is mixed in with all the "new money" people, who are looked at as bootleggers by the East Eggers, like Tom. In this new location, Nick finds himself going against his own beliefs, when he accepts to help Gatsby win back Daisy. As time goes on, Nick loses himself deeper and deeper into Gatsby's track toward death. Nick sees the Eggs and NYC as full of life, glamour, and elegance. However, this quickly changes as the conflict between Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy eat him alive and turn him into a hurt and changed man. In the novel, it states that New York was "haunted" to him now. The Eggs had swallowed him up and spit him out with nothing gained; he was only scarred from the deaths he witnessed and the grief that came with it.