How does Pip's first-person narration affect the story in Great Expectations?

The use of the First person limited narrator,  allows different possibilities for the author,  in the construction of the novel, and the reader in the perception of Pips drama. “Great Expectations” was written during the age of Realism,  so having a character telling his own story is a plausible way of putting the story in order, giving some information and not other, and making you feel that you are reading the story of a real person, not a character.  Also is a way of avoiding the effect of an external intelligence that can see everything, but chooses not to give us all the information.

Having  Pip telling his own story can help us perceive how he feels about himself, other people and what happens to him in a way that reflects also his own perception of the world. That is, the way he tells and understands his story tells us how he really is. When he first gets Joe’s visit we can learn how he really feels because of the way he narrates the encounter, more than what objectively happens. Then the way he feels about his benefactor changes as he knows more about the man, and so changes the vocabulary he uses to describe the convict.  Also, the way he perceives Mrs. Havisham and her house varies from the fist stage to the last stage of the book. In each of the three stages of Pip’s expectations we can trace the changes in personality much better by analyzing how he tells his story in each.