Below are two examples from my 2011-2012 Gifted class.  They are excellent examples of voice.  Good job, Tigers! 
     
    --Mr. Donn

       O’Henry and Maupassant both create beautiful stories, and when it all boils down to it they incorporate the same techniques. But what gives it that extra pizazz and separates their writings from the rest to make them sparkle? . . . ."Fishing…but where can we go? ...to our island of course" (411).  This quote from "Two Friends," written by Maupassant ,really stood out to me as a reader. Initially when we think of an island, the first image in our head is of paradise, peace, and laughter all wrapped into one. Yet, this friendly fishing trip quickly turned into a funeral when the two friends are killed by the Prussians. Guy de Maupassant snatches the reader’s attention through his dramatic twists and keeps it there until you read the last and final sentence of his works.


     The above voice is musical, full of life and color, and moves like a dance.  The next example takes an entirely different approach, almost like an anatomy expert peering closely into something frightening yet fascinating:

Guy de Maupassant, in "Two Friends," not only establishes a theme but also his political views through the usage of situational irony- he suggests that Monsieurs Sauvage and Morissot, in refusing to give the password to bypass the frontlines, are brave and heroic Frenchmen who would sooner die than betray their motherland. Maupassant uses Sauvage and Morissot to express his alternative views through dialogue: "…pounding lives to dust, crushing joys, so much long-expected happiness, tearing into the hearts of all those wives and daughters and mothers with pain and suffering that would never be eased" (413); this hyperbolic quote clearly represents his feelings about the futility of the war. . . Together, the two authors reveal through situational irony and figurative language themes focusing on the three major parts of literature: life, love, and war.