How Do You Balance Optimism and Hopefulness in Your Books?

The only being in the book that had a name was sounder, the dog et. And they never hug each other, which is not the southern way. You write about social, economic, physical, sexual and racial issues. But you're writing, it's never cheesy or preach r heavy handed. How do you balance the sort of optimism and hopefulness in your books with such hard topics?