What is the significance of Randy and Ponyboy's interaction in chapter 7 of The Outsiders? What does Randy's speech reveal about the Socs?

When Randy approaches the greasers in chapter 7, everybody assumes that Randy is up to no good. The greasers remind Randy that he's not allowed to start anything before the Rumble. Randy stays calm and collected and requests to speak with Ponyboy. The conversation begins with Randy wondering why Ponyboy saved those kids from the fire, and Randy admits that he would have let them burn. Ponyboy doesn't buy it and explains that his actions had nothing to do with being a Soc or a greaser.

Randy then moves the conversation to the rumble, and he has two lengthy paragraphs of explanation. He declares that he is not going to the rumble because it doesn't do any good to go to the rumble. He knows that people are going to get hurt and possibly die like Bob did, and it won't do any bit of good. Win or lose, the Socs are still Socs, and the greasers are still greasers. The social order doesn't change. The only thing that happens is people get hurt and die, and Randy is sick of being part of it.

Ponyboy can clearly see that Randy is very broken up over Bob's death and the pointlessness of the fighting. The conversation is a real eye opener for Ponyboy because he finally sees evidence of Cherry's comment that "things are rough all over." When she said it earlier in the story, Ponyboy believed her, but he didn't have any evidence as to why it was true. Now Pony has evidence. He sees that Randy is just as broken up about Bob as the greasers are about Johnny.

This conversation is important because Ponyboy finally sees and understands that the Socs are humans just like the greasers, and that is why Ponyboy corrects Two-Bit at the end of the chapter. Two-Bit calls Randy "Super-Soc," and Ponyboy says that Randy is "just a guy" wanting to talk. The entire conversation has revealed to Ponyboy that the Socs are just human guys with human problems and have it rough as well.

I still had a headache, but I felt better. Socs were just guys after all. Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.

Why does Randy visit Ponyboy in chapter 11 of The Outsiders?

Randy is one of Bob’s friends and a Soc. He comes to visit Ponyboy in chapter 11 after Johnny has died. Ponyboy is experiencing the loss and going through the stages of grief. Randy visits Ponyboy to check in on him and let him know that he is going to testify that Pony is innocent. He tells Pony,

My dad says for me to tell the truth and nobody can get hurt. He's kind of upset about all this. I mean, my dad's a good guy and everything, better than most, and I kind of let him down, being mixed up in all this. (chapter 11)

Randy wants to make sure that Pony is doing alright, but he wants to put his mind at ease. With everything that has happened—Bob dying, the church fire, and Pony having a mental breakdown—I think Randy wanted to help put Pony at ease by telling him that it was all going to be alright.

When Pony starts taking the blame for Bob’s death, Randy is confused. However, he learns that in coming to talk to Pony he has brought up Johnny, and the mention of him makes Pony confused. Pony doesn’t accept Johnny’s death, and he doesn’t believe Johnny would have stabbed Bob. Ponyboy has begun to idealize Johnny in his mind after the death of his friend, and Randy can see the extent of Pony’s sickness in his warped memory of the event.

In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the Greasers is a gang "from the east side of town." Their only real rivals, the Socs, "jump Greasers and wreck houses" but remain "an asset to society" as Ponyboy comments. Ponyboy has a volatile relationship with his older brother Darryl who looks after Ponyboy since their parents were killed in a car crash. One day, Ponyboy is upset because Darryl has been shouting at him again and he decides to run away. Ponyboy decides not to run away but unfortunately, he and his best friend Johnny, get into a fight with the Socs; Randy, Bob and three others. Matters go completely out of control to the point that Johnny ends up killing Bob while trying to save Ponyboy. The boys know they have to go into hiding, and Dallas Winston, "the real character" of the Greasers and probably the most dangerous, leads them to a church where they can stay for now. Tragically things do not work out for the boys and Johnny dies from his injuries after he and Ponyboy try to save some children from being burnt to death in a fire in the church. 

After everything that happened Randy comes to see Ponyboy. He has to appear in Court the following day to give his account of what happened and he wants to talk to Ponyboy. Ponyboy is still in denial about the fact that Johnny is dead and he strongly disagrees with Randy when Randy talks about Johnny having killed Bob. Even though Randy tells Ponyboy that he saw what happened and that he understands, and even that Bob provoked Johnny, Ponyboy will not hear of it, claiming that he was the one who killed Bob. Randy leaves maintaining that he will tell the truth. He is sorry to hear that Ponyboy even risks being taken away from the care of his brother and placed into foster care. 

In The Outsiders, why did Randy visit Ponyboy and what did Ponyboy learn from him?

Ponyboy suffers a concussion after being beaten in the head during a rumble. In Chapter 11, Randy comes to visit him because he has missed several days from school. Randy tells Ponyboy that he came over to see how he was doing.

Still, readers can infer from Ponyboy and Randy's conversation that Randy is feeling guilty about all that has happened. It is the day before they are all to go before the judge and he is feeling pretty lousy about what transpired between the two groups. He says to Ponyboy:

"My dad says to tell the truth and nobody can get hurt. He's kind of upset about all this. I mean, my dad's a good guy and everything, better than most, and I kind of let him down, being mixed up in all this."

Readers should pay close attention to what is happening in this part of the book. According to Cherry (In Chapter 3), Socs don't feel anything. They keep up a charade of aloofness. However, by the end of the book, Randy admits to Ponyboy that he:

"..wouldn't mind getting fined, but I feel lousy about the old man.  And it's the first time I've felt anything in a long time."

In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, why is Randy's meeting with Ponyboy significant?

The meeting between Randy Adderson and Ponyboy Curtis in S.E. Hinton's novel of the conflict between socioeconomic classes and the toll it takes on the young boys involved, The Outsiders, is significant precisely because it represents the potential for a resolution of this meaningless conflict. Randy is a Soc; Ponyboy is a Greaser. Both of these individuals represent their respective sides to the conflict. Randy is a typical Soc, hostile to the Greasers and willing to engage in violent acts solely for the purpose of perpetuating that conflict. Unlike many of the Socs, especially the ill-fated Bob, who is stabbed and killed by Ponyboy's closest friend, Johnny, precipitating their flight from town, Randy begins to question the assumptions that underlie the violent confrontations that invariably ensue whenever the two sides cross paths. After Ponyboy and Johnny have risked their lives to save the children from the burning church, these once-one-dimensional figures from the poor side of town are suddenly cast in a whole new light to the seeming heir-apparent to the leadership of the Socs. Taking Ponyboy aside, Randy is genuinely confused regarding his preexisting assumptions about the Greasers:

"Randy pulled out a cigarette and pressed in the car lighter. 'I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. I would never have believed a greaser could pull something like that.'

'Greaser' didn't have anything to do with it. My buddy over there wouldn't have done it. Maybe you would have done the same thing, maybe a friend of yours wouldn't have. It's the individual.'

'I'm not going to show at the rumble tonight,' Randy said slowly."

The meeting between Randy and Ponyboy is significant for the cracks it exposes in the mutually antagonistic environment that defines these boys' world. Prior to Ponyboy and Johnny's heroic actions, Randy would never have viewed a Greaser, any Greaser, as capable of a selfless act of sacrifice worthy of admiration. Now, however, he is forced to question his prejudices and the assumptions that heretofore had shaped his perceptions of the Greasers.