In To Kill a Mockingbird, how does Atticus act toward Alexandra when she is staying in the house with them?

Atticus treats his sister, Alexandra, with overall firmness.  When she says or does something that he disagrees with, he confronts her in a polite, yet stern, manner.  Scout, the narrator, can tell that he is sometimes slightly irritated with her.  Scout can see "a subtle change in [her] father" and that he speaks to her in a way that is like "quiet digging in, [but] never outright irritation."  One day Aunt Alexandra suggests that they dismiss Calpurnia.  Atticus disagrees and is firm in telling his sister so.  He makes it clear that Calpurnia is a necessary part of the Finch household.

Aunt Alexandra does have some influence over her brother, however.  She tells him that his children should behave with the kind of breeding that lives up to the Finch name.  She pressures him into talking to them about their behavior, which he does without enthusiasm.

In Elie Wiesel's Night, is any progress made towards combating racism?

Elie Wiesel’s Night is a harrowing picture of the Holocaust. The book is punctuated with horrific scenes portraying unimaginable inhumanity. It is hard to believe that the story includes any progress made towards combating racism. Yet Night offers glimmers of hope.

In Night, the Holocaust is portrayed not just as extermination of physical bodies, but the destruction of souls. Elie loses his faith early in the memoir, yet many of his fellow Jews do not. Even after a day of back-breaking physical labor, over 10,000 Jews at Auschwitz gather for prayers celebrating the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. Their prayers are an act of rebellion against the Nazis and symbolize the resilience of the human spirit in the face of horror.

The Nazis viewed the Jewish people as subhuman, people whose elimination would benefit the world. Yet Elie, by trying to keep his father alive, shows the reader that every race of people has the same humanity and worth. Another profound moment comes when Elie briefly considers letting his father, a man who becomes "dead weight," die. Elie proves that human beings, no matter their race, religion, or ideology, have both good and evil aspects to their nature.

Which literary device is "brown beetles"?

The two words, “brown beetles,” show the use of alliteration.  Alliteration is the repetition of like consonant sounds most often used at the beginning of words. The use of alliteration can create a rhythm or mood to a passage or line of poetry, and it is usually used for effect or creative meaning. 

For example, this sentence uses alliteration through the repetition of the “r” sound: "The rainstorm relentlessly rattled the ranch style house." The use of alliteration in this instance gives the reader a visual description, a description of sound, and perhaps, an idea that the house isn’t in good repair or standing up well to the rainstorm. 

Alliteration’s “cousin”, assonance is the repetition of like vowel sounds.  Here’s an example: "Anna ate the apple all the way down to the core." The “a” sound is being repeated.

For fun, let's extend "brown beetles" to, "The brown beetles burrowed between the basement wall and the box elder bushes."

What is education social mobility?

In sociology, the concept of social mobility refers to the movements of individuals between stratified social classes. Social mobility can be "downward," meaning it puts the individual in a less-privileged social class, or "upward," meaning the individual gains socio-economic status. This status consists of multiple advantages. Those who are upwardly socially mobile have acquired more material assets, social capital or resources due to networking, and education that they had previously. Downwardly socially mobile people lose access to these privileges.

While "education social mobility" is not an existing sociological phrase, it may refer to how social mobility is impacted by education. Individuals from low-income families who attain college degrees have a higher chance of being upwardly mobile to a higher social class than those who do not attend college. Sociological data analyses have shown that the more years of education an individual attains, the more likely they are to be upwardly socially mobile. The amount of education an individual attains may have a significant impact on their social mobility.

What is the word that signals a shift in the poem?

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, it is the word "But" at the start of line 9 that signals a shift in the poem.

Prior to that word, Shakespeare sets up the idea that beautiful things ultimately lose their beauty, and that a moment of perfection is quickly erased.  On a lovely summer day, for example, sometimes the sun gets too hot or goes behind a cloud.

"But," Shakespeare argues, the subject of his poem will neither lose (her?) beauty nor fade away.  In writing about her in her moment of perfection, Shakespeare will immortalize her for all time.  In the final couplet, Shakespeare concludes that as long as there are people on the earth who are able to read, the subject of his poem will live forever in her present beautiful state.

Thus, the "but" in line 9 serves as the transition from the concept of a beauty that fades to one that, through literature, lives forever.

What happens to Buck after he leaves Judge Miller's home in Call of the Wild?

The theft and sale of Buck in The Call of the Wild completely alters the dog's life as it reverses the generations of domestication of his breeds of St. Bernard and the Scottish shepherd and returns him to the atavistic nature of his ancestors.

Once Buck is in the possession of his captors, his freedom and kind treatment by humans vanishes. He becomes no more than a caged animal, at first. Then, he finds himself harnessed to a team that pulls a sled in Alaska. "He swiftly lost the fastidiousness which had characterized his old life." He begins to gobble down food lest another take it from him, and he steals what he can. These actions marks his adaptability and his new owners are pleased.

Because the "dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck" certain traits emerge in him such as cunning and deliberateness. For instance, he avoids fights, and although he hates his rival, the lead dog Spitz, Buck does not display his feelings and avoids offensive acts that would spur Spitz to fight. But, one day when Spitz tries to steal the nest Buck has made under a rock, he feels the "beast in him" roar, and he fights the usurper. However, as they fight, "famished beasts" appear, trying to steal as much food as they can. Buck fights them fiercely. Finally, one day Buck kills Spitz and takes over as the lead dog.

Later, Buck finds himself on another team that carries heavy loads of mail. When he and the other dogs arrive, they are in a "wretched state, worn out and worn down." One of the dogs is shot because he is so weakened. Afterwards, the owners sell Buck and his team to three eager prospectors. Unfortunately, they have little knowledge of the climate or dogs, and they overload the sled and have planned poorly for the journey they undertake. The woman, Mercedes, overfeeds the dogs early on and they run out of food for the dogs. By the time that they arrive, out of fourteen only five have survived. When the man, Hal, tries to beat the dogs and force them to cross thin ice, Buck's instincts tell him to rebel because of danger. When he does so, Hal beats him fiercely, but John Thornton intervenes, rescuing Buck from his insensitive owners who fall through the ice.

With Thornton as his owner, Buck lives happily; in his devotion to the man who has saved him, he, in turn, saves his owner from drowning and from an attack by another man. Buck even wins over a thousand dollars for Thornton as he pulls a load weighing about half a ton. Over time, however, more of the primordial beast emerges in Buck and he wanders off to hunt real game such as moose. He also mingles with wolves, but he still returns to camp at night. One time, however, Buck returns to find his owner has been killed by Yeehat Indians. Fiercely, he kills several of the Indians and runs off the others. Afterwards, Buck charges into the wild,; there he hears yelps that act as that atavistic call which persists in his memory. 

It was the call, the many-noted call, sounding more luringly and compelling than ever before.

Now without his human owner, Buck answers this call. When a pack of wolves come one day, Buck kills the boldest one and fights the others. But, when an old wolf approaches and sniffs his nose peacefully, then turns up his head and howls at the moon, Buck, too, howls. After this night he runs with the pack of wolves, yelping as they do. In time Buck becomes a legendary figure as the Indians who yet fear him call him the Ghost Dog.

What is the conflict in Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder?

In this first book in the Little House series, the Wilders live in the "big woods" of Wisconsin in a small log cabin. The area is already settled, and they have neighbors, though none too close by. The book is a year-long series of vignettes about the family's life. Their first conflict is the struggle to survive: Pa, their father, must hunt and kill enough animals for them to eat through winter as well as to have fur pelts to trade in the spring. The family must slaughter a pig for winter provisions and harvest crops and vegetables. In the winter, they gather maple syrup, while spring and summer are exhausting seasons of planting and harvesting. 

Other conflicts animate the story: the tomboy Laura, the book's protagonist, is often jealous of and sometimes fights with her pristine, golden-haired older sister Mary, who is prettier and does everything in a more ladylike way. Laura struggles with her own tendencies to disobey and rebel; for instance, she touches hot bullets although she is warned they will burn her fingers and she does not want to sit still, be quiet, and be good on Sundays. Although very young, Laura must learn to control her impulses, a lesson repeatedly reinforced in the narrative.