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. The dialogue most supports the claim that Tony and Raoul disagree about whether ['short stories provide glimpses of facets of character that are usually kept hidden', "only short stories are used as novelists' sketch pads", 'novels and short stories employ the same strategies to depict human lives', 'human lives are best understood as series of completely disjointed vignettes']