The Hobson Family System in Richard Powers's Prisoner's Dilemma

Abstract Richard Powers's Prisoner's Dilemma tells the story of an ordinary American family, the Hobsons, as they confront a family crisis. Eddie Hobson, Sr., husband to Aileen and father of four young adult children, suffers an undiagnosed illness that has physically and mentally affected him for years and long incapacitated his family. Through Family Systems Theory, I explain how each family member equally plays a significant part in the narrative progression of the story as I show how they participate in the family system. Specifically, I discuss how the family secret impacts homeostasis in the Hobson family system, how birth order and family niches influence family interactions, and how the Hobson family perpetuates its family myth. I then explore the autobiographical contribution Powers makes to the Hobson family dynamic as he responds to their collective character, and I explain how the author incorporates himself into the novel as the fifth Hobson child and narrator. Ultimately, I show that as Powers recognizes the contemporary human struggle against dehumanizing forces, embodying that struggle in the experience of the family, Family Systems Theory appropriately illuminates the characterological, narratological, and thematic force of his novel.