The Price of Salt has a long history of identity crises. 

When she first published the book in 1952 as The Price of Salt, author Patricia Highsmith used a pseudonym: Claire Morgan. She'd published one book prior, Strangers on a Train, and her new novel's content was on a totally different track from that thriller. The Price of Salt tells the story of a young shop girl named Therese who falls in with an older married woman named Salt. 

Wait, no, her name is Carol. 

The two women go on a cross-country road trip and explore a relationship that is off the beaten path. 

The Price of Salt was revolutionary in the 1950s for its happy ending—this was a time when most lesbian love stories were written as tragic instead of portrayed in the same cheesy light as heterosexual romances. In and out of print over the years, the novel's strong cult following kept it alive. The book's had a couple different titles over the years, though none have been very colorful. It's been known as The Price of Salt, or Carol, or The Price of Salt, or Carol all in one big bulky title, but never The Price of Carol or Salt. For a book with characters who are so secure in their sexuality, it's ironic the book has changed its identity so many times.

After The Price of Salt, Highsmith wrote five novels about a dude name Tom Ripley, who you know better as Matt Damon in a funny suit. Ripley's popularity overshadowed this small book, but the 2015 film version—which landed six Oscar noms—put it back in the spotlight (source). As always, though, we say to start with the book.

On June 26, 2015, over sixty years after The Price of Salt was published, same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States. People took to Facebook and Twitter to celebrate with the hashtag #lovewins. These days, almost everyone knows someone in who is gay (or is gay themselves), and gay and lesbian characters, while still underrepresented in movies and on TV, are featured in a variety of roles.

It wasn't always this way, though. The 1950s were a time without gay rights, Facebook, or pithy hashtags to express your distaste with society without getting out of bed. And when you could find gay characters in books, TV, and movies, they were usually villainous, devious, or otherwise diabolical.

Lesbian pulp fiction is infamous for having its characters either turn straight in the end or, failing to be "cured" of their gayness, die in some horrible fashion, like hanging themselves or being crushed by a falling tree. (Source.)

The Price of Salt tells a different story, though. While it explores a young lesbian trying to find her place in a heterosexual-male dominated world, Therese never feels obligated to conform. She wants to find her own identity and her own life, while remaining true to herself and her sexuality.

Patricia Highsmith didn't write her book as an expressly political text, and she didn't intend to bring about great social change, but by portraying her characters as normal people and giving them a happy ending, she went against the norm. That's how change begins.