It is the classic story of Good vs Evil. In this book the good guys have the chance to leave the bad guys behind before running off to their "promised" land. Instead of leaving them behind, for some reason the Good guys decide (probably because they are good) that even Evil should have a chance of changing who they are. So, in the hopes that Evil will become good, they are brought along.

There is one point in the book where there is a touching father son moment, and the father is teaching his son about the balance of life, and that for every positive there must be a negative. It is at this point, we as the reader starts to understand why the Evil guys were brought along. Evil must exist in order for there to be balance to Good.

I relate this to Utah and BYU. Utah is obviously the Evil and BYU the Good. BYU sees Utah as the balance that is needed and will always try to bring them along in hope that they one day will become Good, but probably knowing that it is without hope.