a psychopathic killer, and yet Highsmith is able to develop his character in a way that arouses readers' sympathy for him. There are hints that he is a closeted homosexual, as he is accused of being a "sissy" raised by an unloving aunt after he is orphaned. He is clearly attracted to Dickie Greenleaf, but unable to express it directly. By emulating Dickie, killing him, and for a time, assuming his identity, Ripley is able to, in a sense, sublimate his feelings. It could be argued that in a society that did not accept homosexuality, a charming, heterosexual killer would be in some ways more acceptable than a gay man, as Highsmith seems to suggest.

The fact that Tom Ripley leaves America for Europe suggests that in the postwar United States, a man could not truly discover his own nature and identity outside of the way the Puritan past informs the American male identity, with notions of hard work, thrift, and fatherhood. Tom Ripley is too urbane and cosmopolitan for the social and gender expectations of mid-century America.