# So, what was wrong with Boo Radley? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972 "2014-01-05T21:34:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/21 "2014-01-06T02:57:30Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > That’s a bit harsh, maybe tetched but do we want to go so far as to say flicted? > > Can we settle on pixillated? The child ain’t right. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/22 "2014-01-06T06:41:16Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Well, I think his primary condition is called Being In A Book, because it very conveniently manifests itself in whatever way the plot needs it to. The story doesn’t seem to indicate there was anything wrong with him, other than teen wilding, prior to Mr. Radley taking charge. > > I sometimes wondered if there was some cumulative damage from Mr. radley’s corporal punishment, maybe combined with depression. Much of the setting of the story seems to be based on the author’s real life, and her version of Dill (Truman Capote) says that he also remembered a Boo-like person from their childhood who would leave things for people under trees. Granted, Capote was a jealous mofo when Lee’s first book did so well. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/23 "2014-01-06T07:38:18Z")
He apparently had a psychotic episode as a teenager in which he became violent towards his father. It is possible that his father provoked it. It seems that there was already some genetic predisposition to anti-social behavior; his brother wasn’t that normal either. I read one paper in which a lit professor argued that Boo was a pedophile (his interest in Scout bordering on stalking), though that seemed more an attempt at tenure. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/24 "2014-01-06T12:04:26Z")
I always assumed he was beaten until he was broken. Although now I think the lobotomy idea has merit. He also stabbed his mother (?) in the leg with scissors. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/25 "2014-01-06T12:42:48Z")
Whatever is was, it was obviously that condition that only afflicts Southern males, loosely known as “Tetched in th’ Ha-yed.” The only non-Southerner ever known to have had it was serial killer Carl Panzram, born in Minnesota to Prussian immigrants, who nonetheless [spoke with a drawl, not a twang](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI_uwG140kA) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/26 "2014-01-06T12:49:11Z")
People I know with goofy nicknames run the gamut as far as explanations. “Growing up, my little sister couldn’t say Andrew. She called me “Boo”, which was so cute it just sorta stuck.” “When I realized they all thought I was dead also, I sat up and said Boo! Ed fainted, Marlene shat her pants, and from then on everyone called me Boo.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/27 "2014-01-06T15:03:26Z")
Maybe a little mentally slow or Asperger’s, but I think his main problem was being kept isolated inside for decades with a family that was probably mentally and physically abusive to him. He sees the children playing their “Boo Radley” game and decides to befriend them, first with presents in the tree, then giving Scout a blanket on the cold night of the fire and mending Jem’s pants. I’ve always loved the scene where Scout stands on Boo’s porch after walking home and thinks about life from his side of the window. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/28 "2014-01-06T15:33:13Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Or he may at one time have been a normal boy who was emotionally abused and isolated at home to the point of being broken. I thought this was obviously the case - it never occurred to me that there was any question around it. He was a normal kid who went through a wild patch, but then his over-rigid father decided to force the wildness out of him by keeping him locked up and isolated. After years of that, Boo lost hold of his sanity, the way a lot of people would. He’s essentially spent years (decades?) in solitary confinement. There’s no indication in the book that there was anything wrong with him before that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/29 "2014-01-06T17:52:32Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I always assumed he was beaten until he was broken. Although now I think the lobotomy idea has merit. > > He also stabbed his mother (?) in the leg with scissors. The lobotomy wasn’t invented until the late 40s. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/30 "2014-01-06T18:13:51Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The lobotomy wasn’t invented until the late 40s. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy), lobotomies have been performed since 1935. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/31 "2014-01-06T18:36:34Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Good question, maybe his dad had him treated with electroshock and it did the personality change? How early did they do electroshock? I am fairly certain he is a bit too early for lobotomy. > > If he was acting up, could he have been bipolar or autistic and during the movie in a down phase? I wonder if he had Asperger’s or something like it. At that time, it wasn’t uncommon for families to isolate a member who “wasn’t quite right”. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/32 "2014-01-06T18:59:25Z")
Whatever it was, it was seemingly [genetic.](http://s18.postimg.org/4sbh0sm2x/Sling_Blade1996_DCc11.png) ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/33 "2014-01-06T20:27:51Z")
I think alot of Boo’s isolation was self-imposed as well. He was treated like shit by the town after his trial as a teenager and I think cut himself off from the outside world as a defense. I think Scout makes the observation that his solitary exsistance wasn’t as lonley as she thought. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/34 "2014-01-06T20:38:46Z")
Any number of the theories I’ve seen so far are perfectly plausible. But Harper Lee is the only one who MAY know what was really wrong with Boo Radley, and even SHE may not have given it much thought. Remember, narrator Scout was only passing along rumors and gossip she had heard about the Radleys, and she had no way of knowing if the rumors were true. All she (thought she) knew was that there was a spooky character living in the Radley house. I didn’t grow up in a small Southern town; I grew up in New York City. But even in my neighborhood, we kids heard and spread stories about allegedly spooky people. There was one dotty old lady with dozens of cats that we all heard was a witch. There was an old French guy that, rumor had it, had been released from a mental hospital after killing his family. Was ANY of that true? Probably not, but who the heck knows? We only knew what he’d heard in bits and pieces. Get the idea? Kids in EVERY part of the world have their own local “haunted houses” and eerie neighbors. MAYBE Boo was a normal kid who’d been locked up too long, or maybe he was “tetched.” I’m not sure it much matters. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/35 "2014-01-06T21:53:24Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Remember, narrator Scout was only passing along rumors and gossip she had heard about the Radleys, and she had no way of knowing if the rumors were true. All she (thought she) knew was that there was a spooky character living in the. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Dil, Scout, and Jem put on their plays reenacting the crime and other bloody and horrifying incidents in the history of House Radley. If I remember correctly, they even hear Boo laughing at them once. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/36 "2014-01-06T21:58:17Z")
When he was a small child, Boo Radley was run over by Charles Foster Kane as he rode Rosebud down a hill. He was never the same after that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/37 "2014-01-06T23:33:06Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy), lobotomies have been performed since 1935. Thanks. Still too late to have been Mr. Arthur’s problem. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/38 "2014-01-06T23:38:36Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The child ain’t right. Curse you for making me picture the Hill family in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972/39 "2014-01-07T04:37:05Z")
**Marley** , I would pay good money to see that movie. Hank is my hero. Being from East TN, I’d say Boo was “funny-turned.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-wrong-with-boo-radley/677972.md?page=1)