A Bildungsroman but at what cost?

In class we talked a bit about the lack of happy endings in gay and lesbian literature and drama, how stories about gay characters often get reduced to being about the tragedy of being gay and nothing else, skating over the joy, pride, and acceptance that such relationships can bring. Surprisingly, in many ways, The Price of Salt subverts this trend for both lesbian pulp novels and gay and lesbian literature. Carol and Therese end up together, with an actual chance at being happy. Therese grows up significantly, even finding a kind of independence when she returns to New York before reuniting with the woman of her dreams. Carol escapes her husband and the life she hated, eventually ending up with Therese. But at what cost?

Regardless of Carol's feelings about her husband, the position that Highsmith puts her character in is authentic but also torturous, and it makes the book's "happy" ending ring a bit false. Carol is forced to choose between her lover and her daughter and ends up choosing the lover. Losing Rindy is extremely hard for Carol, and whether Therese wants to acknowledge it or not, the choice Carol was forced to make will be the specter that hovers over their lives. Unlike the typical romantic comedy, a victim remains a victim. Rindy doesn't receive a happy ending. Her childhood, the loss of her mother, is the cost of Therese and Carol's happiness, the Price of Salt.