Good points, F'lander. In my teaching days I would sometimes introduce the concept of "persona," having students read excerpts from, say, Great Expectations, Huck Finn, and Catcher in the Rye; then compare the speaking styles of the narrators. Most of the kids loved doing this, discovering along the way that a literary style such as Pip's doesn't necessarily communicate any more effectively than the others. Unfortunately it's much harder to find a similar array of girls' voices--but that's another subject.