Universal Emotion

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I just read an article about a town in Africa being burnt down which resulted in many men, women and children dying. As I was reading, I thought of how devastated and sad the people must be.  I thought about how even though a lot of people weren't there for Hurricane Katrina, many people felt sad and wanted to find ways to help the victims. Do the people of Africa feel the same? Do they too want to help out the victims of this tragedy?
In class, we have been talking about a book called "The Waiting Years" written by Fumiko Enchi and one of her themes is universal emotion. In her story, a wife is asked to find a concubine for her husband and she is saddened by this. When something that we as humans find tragic happens, do we all generally have the same emotion? I think everyone is heartbroken when bad things happen, and happy when good things happen. The way we show are emotions may be different, but they are all the same non the less.