Item 8 Read this excerpt from Scene 7 of The Glass Menagerie.

TOM: I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between places. Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoebox.

I left Saint Louis. I descended the step of this fire-escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space—I travelled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly coloured but tom away from the branches.

I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something.

It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass. Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of coloured glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colours, like bits of a shattered rainbow.

What is the meaning of “for time is the longest distance between places”?

It suggests that Tom has lost most of his belongings with all his moving around.

It suggests that Tom has become somewhat of a wanderer with no direction or home.

It shows that Tom has put a great deal of distance between himself and his family.

It indicates that even though Tom has left his family behind, he can’t move on from their memory.