Is the end hopeful or hopeless?

Towards the end of the novel, Montag floats downriver, where he eventually joins a group of traveling intellectuals camping out in the wilderness. The hobo intellectuals welcome Montag into their group and elaborate on how they memorize entire books. Granger, the leader of the group, explains to Montag the importance of preserving priceless pieces of literature for the future. Granger tells Montag that their goal is to preserve the knowledge of the past in hopes that one day they will be able to write down their memories to rebuild a literate society. Granger also likens humanity to the mythological Phoenix, which destroys itself every few hundred years only to be reborn again and rise from its ashes.
At the end of the novel, the dystopian city is destroyed by a nuclear bomb. However, the traveling intellectuals survive the nuclear attack and walk towards the city armed with their preserved knowledge of the past. Montag leads the group of men, who will attempt to rebuild a literate society. The novel ends on a hopeful note with Montag remembering Ecclesiastes 3 as he travels towards the destroyed city.