It’s kind of hard to understand Caleb’s injuries. Even doctors can’t say for sure exactly why he has flashbacks, why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned for snipers. Sometimes he starts yelling, and often he doesn’t remember anything about it later. They don’t know exactly why it comes to him in dreams, and why especially that time he picked up the pieces of Baghdad bombing victims and that lady who appeared to have thrown herself on top of her child to save him only to find the child dead underneath torments him when he’s sleeping, and sometimes awake. They don’t know why some other guys in his unit who did and saw the same stuff that Caleb did and saw are fine but Caleb is so sensitive to light, why he can’t just watch the news like a regular person without feeling as if he might catch fire. Some hypotheses for why PTSD only tortures some trauma victims blame it on unhappily coded proteins, or a misbehaving amygdala. Family history, or maybe previous trauma.

“It’s kind of hard to understand Caleb’s injuries. Even doctors can’t say for sure exactly why he has flashbacks…

-This would be an example of an evaluative claim. By stating the doctors are unsure of the reason Caleb has flashbacks, the author is describing how complicated his condition is and that it can be difficult for even professionals to understand.

…He could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned for snipers. Sometimes he starts yelling, and often he doesn’t remember anything about it later. They don’t know exactly why it comes to him in dreams, and why especially that time he picked up the pieces of Baghdad bombing victims and that lady who appeared to have thrown herself on top of her child to save him only to find the child dead underneath torments him when he’s sleeping, and sometimes awake.”

-This passage would be both an evaluative claim and a categorical claim. It’s an evaluative claim since this describes a common situation for Caleb that doctors and other experts can observe and draw conclusions from. Since every veteran diagnosed with PTSD has different symptoms, this is also a categorical claim because it is giving an example of Caleb’s symptoms of PTSD.

“They don’t know why some other guys in his unit who did and saw the same stuff that Caleb did and saw are fine but Caleb is so sensitive to light, why he can’t just watch the news like a regular person without feeling as if he might catch fire.”

-These few sentences have comparative claim and categorical claim as it is comparing Caleb’s symptoms with others who experienced the same traumatic events as him but do not have the same symptoms. It is also considered a categorical claim since it’s stating Caleb’s triggers.

“Some hypotheses for why PTSD only tortures some trauma victims blame it on unhappily coded proteins, or a misbehaving amygdala. Family history, or maybe previous trauma.”

-This would be considered a casual claim since it’s only stating a hypothesis and giving possible explanations as to why some trauma victims have PTSD and others don’t.