What does maurice trying to make the littleuns laugh reveal about him

I think He tried to make the littleuns laugh because he wanted to distract them and make them stop crying.
and as the result, they were eventually persuade Percival to speak.

The issue of racism greatly inflience herbecause by then there was racio discrimination in the south this affects her such that she will grow up favouring people of her race and undermining the othersracism will build herin earlier days the people of south were oppressed by the whites since they were considered slaves or subject yo the whites.so as a result of this the whites children grew up bearing in mind that they were more superpower than the black