The first person view of Pechorin serves to make him seem more sympathetic, reasonable, and normal. It is easy to sympathize with someone as they talk to you about something. Likewise, all actions sound more reasonable from the point of view of the person doing them. When we have Pechorin's point of view, we can hear his reasons for his actions, and, as the narrator says, "we practically always excuse things when we understand them."(56)