There was a book (made into a movie) called "The Road". I think of that book a lot. It is about a a post-apocalyptic world where a man travels along a road with his son. He is trying to get his him to the coast where there is food and a chance for survival.

When the boy was a baby, the mother killed herself out of hopelessness after seeing the bombs drop, leaving the man and the boy alone.

The point of the book, in my interpretation, is that the best thing we can do is try, no matter how futile, to make the world a better place for our children.

The man doesn't make it to the coast, dying before he gets there. But his son makes it. It is a pretty depressing book, but there is hope for future generations.