Short Story vs. Novel

Ive never really thought about it this way, but now that we have

been reading so many short stories it feels almost as if each chapter is a new short story. Although each chapter is connected to on another, it gives a feeling of a small beginning and end within each one. When reading a single short story, there is no breaking place. The short story requires us to read the entire thing in one sitting, and if you don’t you feel like you must start all over. The short story feels restricting, giving the reader a feeling of only being able to go forward. On the other hand, the novel gives the reader the ability to go backwards and forwards. Also, in a novel I am able to pay much more attention the the individual characters because there is room for more character development. Writers of a novel have much more freedom and space to create more complex characters. Even though it seems that I have mentioned many more positives about a novel, I am still unsure which one I’d rather read. I don’t even know if there is an answer to that. There are pros and cons to both a short story and a novel.