Exile and Pride

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.