Reader Motivation

Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" is a very bleak and dry short story. Even though it is a short story it seems very long and time consuming. What keeps the reader reading though? That is despite the fact it was assigned for homework or something of that nature. The reader continues because of uncertainty. The narrator seems to have such disdain for a man he has never met that the reader is uncertain what will happen. In fact we are left uncertain what will happen to the very end. We wonder if the narrator will cast the blind man out or if he will learn to accept the blind man. The story may be very hard to get through, but the reader ultimately holds on to rid themselves of the uncertainty created by the narrator.