Curley thinks that Lennie is making fun of him through his silence. Lennie is very large and Curley is short. Curley is defensive about his height and dislikes Lennie's silence.
Curley attacks Lennie out of anger and aggression, blaming him for the death of his wife. In retaliation, Lennie crushes Curley's hand, revealing his immense strength and inadvertently causing Curley significant harm.
The boss is surprised and suspicious that why is George is answering Lennie's question. Boss thinks Lennie is not much of a talker.- KingOfAll
Curley was in the bunk room beating up Lennie. Curley was looking for his wife and saw Lennie laughing. Curley thought Lennie was laughing at him when he really wasn't. Curley then started to beat up Lennie while George is screaming to Lennie to fight back. Lennie then grabs Curley's fist as he is about to punch him again, and Lennie crushes Curley's fist. The damage to Curley's fist was so bad he was taken to the hospital. Slim forces Curley to say his hand was crushed by a machine. There were hardly any bones left in Curley's hand, and Curley was crying.
Curley reacts to Lennie's silence negatively and try's to pick a fight with him. Curley probably figures that Lennie is silent that he is shy and dose not do well in fights. Since Curley is small and insecure, he figures he could take on the silent big guy and make him feel better about himself. This reveals that Curley is nothing more then a little bully.
At first Lennie doesn't fight back, but then George says get Curley to Lennie so Lennie grabs Curley's fist and breaks his hand and doesn't let go until George starts slapping him.
Curley wanted to fight George I think, so he picked on Lennie. He hit Lennie a couple times and then Lennie stopped a punch in mid-air and squeezed Curley fist and brokenit ending his boxing career. Then Lennie Lille Curleys wife and he runs away and George kills him. :)
Curley fought with Lennie because he thought he was superior than everyone else on the ranch since he was the boss's son and since at that time, Lennie was laughing, Curley thought that Lennie was laughing at him. Obviously, as I said before, Curley thought he was better than everyone and he thought that he shouldn't be laughed at by such a low person so he punched Lennie because of his own stupidity and snobbishness.
Curley attacks Lennie out of rage and insecurity. He is a small man who feels threatened by Lennie's size and strength, and he targets Lennie in order to assert his dominance over him and prove his own toughness to the other ranch workers. Curley's aggressive behavior reflects his own feelings of inadequacy and a desire to prove himself.
Curley beat up Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" out of anger and jealousy. Curley was upset over his wife's flirtatious behavior towards the ranch workers, including Lennie. Being a small man, Curley also took out his frustrations on Lennie to assert his dominance and power over him.
George is devastated and feels immense guilt for not being able to protect Lennie. The other ranch workers, particularly Slim and Carlson, react with shock and some understanding of George's decision to shoot Lennie. Curley reacts with anger and seeks revenge.
When Lennie does not want to talk to Curley's wife she begins to feel like everyone around her wants nothing to do with her including Curley himself. She also does not understand why nobody wants to talk to her so she asks what the problem is with someone trying to get a little attention, as well what the problem is with her trying to make conversation.
Curley plans to shoot Lennie in the stomach, to cause a slow and painful death.