Religion
It would be easy to use situations like the one this novel explains and then critique the whole of religion, but actually, the religious imagery of this novel is not designed to criticize "religion" itself, but rather, it criticizes a particular dysfunction which happens to be quite common in traditional religious communities. Basically, the imagery works this way: The concrete imagery of Pattyn's religion is the behavioral expectations of her family and community experienced through her sense of shame, but the abstract quality of that imagery is that it secretly allows her father to be like a violent, drunken demon.
Family
The main action of this novel happens within the emotional and situational confines of family. This helps the reader to zone in on the novel's thematic focus on familial abuse and adult dysfunction. To Pattyn, this is the experience of life she was given. She does not have some sort of second childhood to refer back to for contrast. Every time her father speaks hatefully toward her or beats one of the women in the family, she has to measure for herself whether he should be allowed to do that, and whether she at all "deserved" it. The imagery of family explains why she feels such an urgent need to trust and forgive a father who is busy being unforgivable.
Childbirth
The goal of the novel is for Pattyn to come to maturity, and for her, according to her religious custom, she will attain her highest position of honor when she conceives a son for a Mormon husband. However, the father who instilled that virtue in her is responsible for the loss of her child and husband. That means childbirth is an imagery that is a metric, not a "goal." Because of the dysfunction of Pattyn's upbringing, she must radically improve her mental health in order to stop herself from spiraling into hatred and self-destruction. She needs a rebirth that (in the novel) comes from honesty and shamelessness.
Agony and death
Pattyn's life has a tonal quality that defines it aesthetically. The aesthetic of her life is that she suffers in an ultimate way. Her sense of shame is rooted in grandiose religious language that she was indoctrinated (very skillfully) to believe since the time of her youth. Now, the pillar of her faith, her father (who in Mormonism is literally an incarnate metaphor for God the Father) has ruined her life and has capriciously bestowed her with a painful fate. She agonizes under the weight of her hatred, and she drags it out, trying to be better until finally, she arrives at a climax of suffering—the death of her loved ones at the hands of a hateful father. He aesthetic is Satanic because her religious upbringing has demonized her instinctual nature. In order to be honest and good, she must betray her own religion.
