In this society people are largely born into a chemically enforced class society.
The key moral point of the book resolves around the problem the people in the society appear and state that are generally happy. John the Savage however considers this happiness to be artificial and "souless". In a pivotal scene he argues with another character, Mustapha Mond, that pain and anguish are a necessary part of life as well as joy, and that without them the joy becomes a meaningless thing.