a question about Place?!

Why does place matter?

I think that this is a very interesting and obvious question. How does it not matter? How could "The Old Man and the Sea" have been written without the sea? Place is such and integral part of any story, it can shape an entire person's mentality. An example of this is Sacrlett O'Hara and her love of Tara that keeps here going through incredible odds. You would never realize this or appreciate this perhaps if you had not been removed from your place, from a place or a situation you know so well. Even a senfse of time can be altered with the place you are in. An hour long subway ride from the Bronx to the FInancial district may not seem like that much for someone from New York City, but when a midwest transplant actually ponderrs the fact that she could have covered the same distance at home in a matter of minutes as it is just a few miles from the top to the bottom of Manhattan...it is astounding. Sorry if this seemed slightly stream of though, hopefully this makes some sense. it is just rather hard to come up with an answer for this seemingly obvious question.