“Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”

Here, the author uses an evaluative claim. She is evaluating the amount of time Caleb has been home and deeming it more than enough time for his wife, Brannan, to develop PTSD as well. There is no actual way to prove the amount of time it would take for Brannan to catch his symptoms, but according to the evidence, six years is past that amount.

“The house, in a subdivision a little removed from one of many shopping centers in a small town in the southwest corner of Alabama, is often quiet as a morgue.“

Comparing the house to a morgue makes this an analogy claim. The author compares the similarity between the house and a morgue to allow readers to be able to visualize how silent it really was.

“You can hear the cat padding around. The air conditioner whooshes, a clock ticks.“

These are casual claims. Because of the silence, you can hear all of these noises, which represents cause and effect.

“Caleb screaming at Brannan because she’s just woken him up from a nightmare, after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging—the ensuing silence seems even denser.“

This sentence includes a casual claim and an evaluative claim. It is casual because it includes cause and effect. Brannan woke Caleb up for a nightmare, so he yelled at her. Also, she made sure she was far away from him since he has swung his arms in the past. The end of the sentence that says “the ensuing silence seems even denser,” is evaluative which is given away by the word “seems.” It is a personal judgement whether the silence became denser or not, but can not explicitly be proven.

“Even when everyone’s in the family room watching TV, it’s only connected to Netflix and not to cable, since news is often a trigger.”

In this sentence, the author uses a factual and casual claim. Claiming that the family watches Netflix and not cable is not an opinion and is easy to prove, making it factual. It is also casual, though, because the cause for them not watching cable is because cable often shows the news, which effects the family by triggering them.

“Brannan and Caleb can be tense with their own agitation, and tense about each other’s.”

This is an evaluative claim. The way they act towards each other is an opinion, therefore subjective.

“Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest.“

In this sentence, the author uses a factual and categorical claim. Their German Shepherd was trained to help veterans with PTSD, and would do all of the actions described had it been in the situation where it must alert Caleb of triggers. This is a fact that can not be disproven. The part of the claim that is categorical comes in when it says the things the dog would do to alert Caleb. By listing his methods of altering him, she is categorizing its abilities.

“This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses.”

This is a comparative claim and the word “worse” gives that away. The author and Brannan are comparing Caleb’s PTSD to other veterans with the same disorder.

“She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up. Nor jumped out of her own bed when she got touched in the middle of the night for fear of being raped, again. Still.”

This is another comparative claim. The author is comparing Brannan’s experiences to other wives of veterans.

“‘Sometimes I can’t do the laundry,” Brannan explains, reclining on her couch. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m too tired to do the laundry,’ it’s like, ‘Um, I don’t understand how to turn the washing machine on.’ I am looking at a washing machine and a pile of laundry and my brain is literally overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to reconcile them.'”

Brannan is speaking in casual claims. The effect is her not being able to do laundry, and the cause of this, according to her, is how overwhelmed she is.

“She sounds like she might start crying, not because she is, but because that’s how she always sounds, like she’s talking from the top of a clenched throat, tonally shaky and thin.”

In this sentence, the author is using evaluative claims and an analogy claim. She is describing how Brannan sounds to her, which could be interpreted differently depending on who is listening to her speak. She could sound completely different to another person, which is why it cannot be factual. The author uses an analogy when she compares Brannan’s voice to talking from the top of a clenched throat.

“She looks relaxed for the moment, though, the sun shining through the windows onto her face in this lovely leafy suburb.”

This is another evaluative claim because this is Brannan through the eyes of the author.

“We raise the blinds in the afternoons, but only if we are alone. When we hear Caleb pulling back in the driveway, we jump up and grab their strings, plunging the living room back into its usual necessary darkness.“

These two sentences are both casual claims. The reason they raise the blinds in the afternoon is because Caleb is not home. If he does come home, they close them in order not to trigger him. These are both circumstances of cause and effect.

“The Vineses’ wedding album is gorgeous, leather-bound, older and dustier than you might expect given their youth.“

The author describes the wedding album using a casual claim. It’s appearance is subjective and can be viewed differently varying by person.

“Brannan is 32 now, but in her portraits with the big white dress and lacy veil she’s not even old enough to drink. There were 500 people at the ceremony. Even the mayor was there. And there’s Caleb, slim, in a tux, three years older than Brannan at 22, in every single picture just about the smilingest motherfucker you’ve ever seen, in a shy kind of way.”

This is an example of a factual claim. Her age in the photo, as well as her current age, is stated and there is evidence to back both of these ages up. The number of people and Caleb’s expression, age, and outfit are also things that can be proven. The end of the sentence where the author describes Caleb as shy is an evaluative claim, though. He looks shy to her, but may not to someone else.

“Now, he’s rounder, heavier, bearded, and long-haired, obviously tough even if he
weren’t prone to wearing a COMBAT INFANTRYMAN cap, but still not the guy you
picture when you see his ‘Disabled Veteran’ license plates. Not the old ‘Nam guy
with a limp, or maybe the young legless Iraq survivor, that you’d expect.”

This is an evaluative claim because it describes how Caleb appears to the author. It is also a comparative claim, because this description is in comparison to the way he looked in his wedding photos when he was younger.