The dreams are true
The story starts with omens of warfare, but WWII is already happening. So what is the warfare that threatens Jones? Ironically, it's a war that he brings. Jones views his willingness to do violence as a kind of warfare in the name of justice. By the end of the book, he is sentenced by criminal court to join the army, because he was caught with a gun. His premonitions about warfare came true in both senses, in the racial aspect of his dreams, and in the actual warfare he predicted in his own future.
Jones turns into a villain
Jones is the victim of chronic mistreatment and systemic injustice. His community often judges him harshly, and he is made to suffer racist bigotry without any hope for change. He is disenfranchised at work, even though he does a good job, and when bad people try to hurt him, they always get away with it, because no matter what the truth is, no one will take a black person's word over a white person's word. This leads to the ironic transformation of Jones's character into the violent person that people feared him to be. Jones is corrupted by this mistreatment, and before long, he views violence as an issue of vengeance, and he becomes violent himself, to the point of murder in cold blood.
Jones is disenfranchised from power unreasonably
Although on its surface, the situation seems to be handled correctly (a superior screaming at a subordinate employee is surely an offense to be taken seriously), but Jones is made the victim of unreasonable disenfranchisement because his supervisor didn't care at all that Jones was being egged on by a racist woman who was being intentionally hurtful. His point of view never really mattered in the whole issue, so he was technically disenfranchised the whole time, ironically so. His power was only ever illusory.
The punishment of army service
Ironically, the punishment for Jones's willingness to do violence is that the state will make use of his violence through army service. His punishment for almost murdering some white racists was to go to Europe and fight on the front lines of WWII (the US army historically mistreated black soldiers, often using them like pawns). In other words, the government got something from him. The irony indicates that actually, the state wanted him to be violent, at least to perpetuate racist ideologies.
The sexual mistreatment of black males
Although people used to have very racist ideas about black men that they were more violent or more prone to sexual misconduct, this novel features a black character who is himself the victim of sexual mistreatment. Madge is the best indication of this, because she is obviously racist, but she still wants to have sex with him. In other words, Madge wants Jones because having sex with a black man will supposedly make her feel humiliated, degraded, and embarrassed, which is what she wants. But the implication is that Jones is less than human. When he says no, she waits a day and then screams that he's trying to rape her. Jones is the victim of sexual misconduct because no one believes his point of view, so Madge can do whatever she wants without fear of consequence.
