“Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ’em because he ain’t a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain’t you? Always scrappy?”
– John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, Chapter 2. Candy explains about Curley to George. Curley looks to assert his manliness by fighting. But his victims are always more vulnerable in some way than him. He takes an immediate dislike to Lennie because he is such a huge guy and attacks him in the bunk house.