Tony: A short story is little more than a novelist' s sketch pad  Only novels have narrative structures that allow writers to depict human lives accurately by portraying characters whose personalities gradually develop through life experience  Raoul: Life consists not of a linear process of personality development, but rather of a series of completely disjointed vignettes, from many of which the discerning observer may catch glimpses of character
Thus, the short story depicts human lives more faithfully than does the novel
novels and short stories employ the same strategies to depict human lives