West Egg is on Long Island Sound, about 20 miles east of New York City. It is the less fashionable of two land masses divided by a bay. Across the bay from West Egg is the fashionable East Egg, where Tom and Daisy live in one of the "white palaces" that line the shore that Nick can see from his West Egg cottage.
Nick describes East Egg and West Egg as both shaped like ovals (hence the name "Egg") but each smashed flat on one end.
Geography is important to this novel. Although West Egg is less fashionable than East Egg, it is far more comfortable and desirable than the desolate Valley of the Ashes that Nick passes by on the train on the way to work, and where Tom's girlfriend Myrtle lives.
Living on East Egg allows Nick to leave New York City for a more peaceful setting but to have an easy commute to work in the big city on the train.
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