Structure

The short story “The African-American Special” by Jason Reynolds has a chronological plot structure. The story follows a conversation between the narrator and Frank Fortune, a regular customer at the narrator’s bar, on the issues of race and inequality in America. 

The story begins in medias res as Fortune starts a conversation with the narrator: 

‘SEE?’
‘See, what?’ I asked Fortune, snatching the soggy dollar off the bar and dropping it into the tip jar. I wished it required more effort, more than a drop as if dollar were coin, but instead needed to be finagled – stuffed – into a crowded cash pit. But that wasn't the case. This was t...