Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaBackground
Geographical Context: Port Orford, Oregon
The setting of Oregon is important to Eli Clare’s Exile and Pride—particularly its exploration of The Concepts of Exile and Belonging and The Impact of Environmental Degradation on Marginalized Communities. Clare was raised in Port Orford, which is a small town on the southwest Oregon coast near the Siskiyous National Forest and along the Elk River, which feeds into the Pacific Ocean. The Port Orford of Clare’s childhood was deeply rural and reliant on the timber industry and the salmon fishing industry for economic survival. Clare writes about Port Orford and the Siskiyous with deep reverence. When he describes felling small trees with his father to gather firewood for the winter, there’s a tenderness even to his descriptions of the barren landscape, as when he states that there were “only snatches of green, the new sprouts of huckleberry, greasewood, gorse, and tansy ragwort” (18). The specificity of the plant names illustrates the depth of Clare’s knowledge about the natural world that he grew up surrounded by while also demonstrating the importance of his memories of Port Orford.
The setting is also key to Clare’s argument about the intersection between environmental degradation and rural poverty. Much of Port Orford’s economy was buoyed by industrial timber and fishing, and when the overconsumption of resources (trees and fish) previously thought to be limitless caused these industries to dry up, the workers of the community suffered. Clare empathizes with these people even though he acknowledges that many of them may not accept his gender identity and orientation. He feels connected to the people of his community and to the community itself because of the beauty of nature and his familiarity with the world in which he spent his childhood and adolescence. This closeness makes his departure due to his father’s abuse and his burgeoning LGBTQIA+ identity all the more painful. His lingering fondness for Port Orford reflects his yearning to return and also his yearning to change the place for the better—not only for other disabled and LGBTQIA+ people but also for the loggers and fishermen who struggle economically. Clare’s connection to his hometown thus illustrates the intersection of disability, orientation, economic justice, and class in rural communities.
Social Context: Intersectionality and Action
Intersectionality is a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in her 1989 essay “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” Crenshaw, a Black woman, used the word to describe a kind of oppression that stems from both racism and sexism without being reducible to either. Since then, the concept has been applied to a number of axes of identity besides sex and race/ethnicity, including class, orientation, gender identity, and disability. Though originally a theoretical concept, it has shaped real-world activism in the late 20th and 21st centuries and is in particular a defining feature of third-wave feminism.
The social issues that Clare engages with throughout Exile and Pride demonstrate the importance of intersectionality in overcoming oppression and achieving liberation. Clare’s various identities inform his view of these issues. His cerebral palsy attaches him to the disabled community. Though he initially struggles with the desire to disconnect from disability culture and to “overcome” his condition, as an adult he cultivates pride in his disabled identity and seeks to forge meaningful relationships with others with disabilities. His lesbian and genderqueer identities allow him to join LGBTQIA+ communities throughout his adulthood and find further self-acceptance. However, this self-acceptance is complicated by the divide between urban and rural communities, as Clare feels like an outsider in the city and in the lesbian community due to his rural upbringing. This rural background also informs Clare’s view of environmental justice; he has hands-on experience with forestry and has seen firsthand the impacts of clearcutting and environmental degradation. He knows the cost of the timber industry’s greed and, conversely, the impact the timber industry’s departure can have on communities that rely on logging and paper mills for their economic survival.
Clare weaves these issues together to critique the overarching structure of society. Each of Clare’s essays includes a call to action: a request for the audience not only to consider his arguments and analysis but also to remain aware of the myriad ways that society oppresses those with marginalized identities. All of these issues are connected, as the oppression caused by a racist, heterosexist societal structure negatively impacts all who live under it: The white, rural logger suffers under the current societal model due to classist discrimination, the urban LGBTQIA+ person suffers due to anti-gay or anti-trans bias, the person with a disability suffers due to the violence of ableism, etc. Clare urges his audience to see the tapestry of oppression and seek to dismantle it.
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