Piper’s growth and transformation through her identification with Westport and her relationship with Brendan drive the narrative of It Happened One Summer. Piper engages in a quest to discover what defines her and how she might identify her essential self. The “fish out of water” trope is a narrative device of long-standing that helps a literary character discover what they truly value.

Piper, in the opening of the novel, values personal attractiveness, fun, and admiration from other people. She hasn’t examined her life until her breakup and her stepfather’s disappointment in her make her question her value and identity. Adrian suggests she is replaceable, a stereotype rather than a person, dismissing the value Piper has put on her attractiveness. Daniel evaluates her for her accomplishments and finds none. Then, her initial blunders in Westport make Piper worry that she is an airhead. As she says to Brendan in a moment of doubt, “I’m really good at going to parties and taking pictures…but what if that’s it? What if that’s just it?” (140). “I don’t know who I am in Westport,” Piper says to Hannah later (232), showing that her crisis of identity is brought about by her change in circumstances.