Section 18- But here we’ve got lasagna, and salad with an array of dressing choices, and a store-bought frosted Bundt cake with chocolate chips in it! There is no dining-room table—when they bought the house years ago, they thought they’d finish it up real nice like they did with another house, before the war, but nobody’s up for that now, so we all huddle around the coffee table in the living room.  And it’s lovely. Dinner lasts for hours. Brannan tries to calm Katie down despite the excitement of the visitor at dinner, while Katie shows me games and drawings as we eat. Brannan and I make fun of Caleb for being three years older than us, so old, and Caleb makes jokes that it does indeed feel like he and Brannan have been married for-ever. The plates have been cleared by then, everyone reclining, he laughs when he says this, and she laughs, and swats at him from where she’s curled herself into his armpit with his arm around her.  At the front door, we all beam at each other in the warm way people do when they’re separating after a nice meal. Caleb is in such a good mood that Brannan asks if he’s up for putting Katie to bed so she can go lie down. Forty-five minutes later, he wakes her up screaming. Not two days after that, he tells her he’s leaving her. “I’m going to get it over with and do it so you don’t have to,” he says, because that’s just the way the scale goes that day, when he weighs the pain of being alone versus the pain of being a burden.

“But here we’ve got lasagna, and salad with an array of dressing choices, and a store-bought frosted Bundt cake with chocolate chips in it!”

The first sentence is a factual claim.

“There is no dining-room table—when they bought the house years ago, they thought they’d finish it up real nice like they did with another house, before the war, but nobody’s up for that now, so we all huddle around the coffee table in the living room.” 

This quote contains factual and evaluative claims, “there is no dining room table” is a factual claim, and “finish it up real nice like they did with the other house” is evaluative since it compares to something else.

“Brannan and I make fun of Caleb for being three years older than us, so old, and Caleb makes jokes that it does indeed feel like he and Brannan have been married for-ever.”

Technically “married for-ever” is an illustrative claim by saying that the marriage feels like it has lasted longer than it really has.  By saying that Caleb said that, “caleb make jokes” could be an attributive claim as well.

“Dinner lasts for hours”

Numerical and factual claim, simply stating an amount of time.

“Brannan tries to calm Katie down despite the excitement of the visitor at dinner, while Katie shows me games and drawings as we eat.”

Factual claims of various things occurring around the table.

“Caleb is in such a good mood that Brannan asks if he’s up for putting Katie to bed so she can go lie down.”

Attributive claim, “Brannan asks”.

“He wakes her up screaming. Not two days after that, he tells her he’s leaving her.”

Attributive and numerical, “he tells her he’s leaving” is attributive and “not two days after that” is numerical.

“I’m going to get it over with and do it so you don’t have to,” he says,-

Attributive, “he says”.

 because that’s just the way the scale goes that day, when he weighs the pain of being alone versus the pain of being a burden.”

Comparative, compares the pain of being alone and the pain of being a burden.