Differences in novels and short story cycles

Novels and short stories have a lot of differences. First and most obvious, is length. While a novel goes on for hundreds of pages, a short story can end only handful of pages after it starts. To me, this contrast in length is the root of all other differences in the two, including what the stories say.

As a novel has more pages, it has more time to develop a story and lay down themes and morals. A novel could potentially hold countless underlying messages for a reader to interpret, but a short story on the other hand, doesn't have that privilege. The author of a short story has to focus on one or two lessons to be conveyed through his or her work. These lessons have to be direct and fine tuned, because the author only has so many pages to communicate them.

As for short story cycles, a mix of the two message types can be conveyed. Because the cycles are made up of short stories, they have the precise messages within them, but because they hold several short stories within them, the cycles are able to communicate many more messages over a longer period. While the messages may be slightly different from each story, they can link together to unify the cycle under a common theme.