What is the authors purpose in choosing to use the word “self-possessed” three times in the story (Paragraph 1,8 and 14) for the open window

Lizabeth remembers her childhood, during the summer when she destroyed miss lottie's marigolds. the emotions that she experienced from the guilt of her destruction made her feel pain more than the joys and fun that she had, and this motivated her to taunt miss lottie.

Because the jeffersons disease was so   bad back then nobody could go near one another or they would get really sick