One thing should be clear to you now. Money-making is aggression. That's the whole thing. The functionalistic explanation is the only one. People come to the market to kill. They say, 'I'm going to make a killing.' It's not accidental. Only they haven't got the genuine courage to kill, and they erect a symbol of it. The money. They make a killing by fantasy.
The quote emphasizes that money-making in the market is akin to aggression. It portrays the act of making money as a fierce competition where individuals approach trading with a predatory mindset, akin to "killing" their competitors. The phrase 'make a killing' highlights this aggression, suggesting that it is not merely about financial gain but also involves a certain violent ambition.
Bellow implies that while people may fantasize about this aggressive pursuit of wealth, they often lack the true courage to act on such instincts. Instead, they symbolize this ambition through money, representing their desire to dominate and succeed in the marketplace. Ultimately, the pursuit of wealth is illustrated as a complex interplay of ambition, fantasy, and the underlying aggression of the financial world.
