In this society people are largely born into a chemically enforced and totally conformist class society.
The key moral point of the book resolves around the problem that the people in the society appear, and state that they 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 to provide context and perspective, "joy" becomes meaningless.