Lennie doesn’t try to cause problems, but he gets scared easily and doesn’t know what to do. George explains: “Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie.” (pg. 42) George was talking about when Lennie touched a girl’s dress in Weed and scared the girl, so they had to run away from their job so they wouldn’t get killed. Incidents like that happened a lot according to George, and he gets very angry at Lennie because of this. It is a burden for George to lose every job he gets because of Lennie.
In conclusion, relationships can sometimes be a burden. For George, Lennie was a burden for a few reasons: George has to take care of Lennie, George takes the blame for problems Lennie creates, and Lennie causes them to lose their jobs. By using the theme of relationships being a burden, Steinbeck is trying to show the reality of relationships and that they aren’t always perfect, and that feelings aren’t always mutual between both people in a relationship. Moreover, lots of relationships in life can be a burden, but the connection and friendship between the people in the relationship can be worth the