Why does Ralph call a meeting in Chapter 5?

Ralph calls a meeting in Chapter 5 of Lord of the Flies because he realizes the boys’ society is falling apart and wants to restore order before fear, laziness, and Jack’s influence take over.

The immediate problem is that the boys have stopped doing the practical things they agreed were necessary. They have not stored water properly, they have not finished building shelters, and most importantly, they have let the signal fire go out. That failure has already cost them a possible rescue when a ship passes the island while the fire is dead. For Ralph, the fire matters above everything else because it is their connection to rescue and to civilization.

Ralph also wants the meeting to be serious. Earlier assemblies had excitement and playfulness, but this one is meant to set things straight. He has begun to see that rules only matter if the boys actually follow them, and he uses the conch to try to bring everyone back into a shared system of responsibility. His refusal to hand the conch to Jack right away shows that he is trying to defend the authority of rules against Jack’s growing impatience with them.

The meeting also addresses the boys’ fear of the beast. Ralph notices that people are becoming afraid and believes that talking openly about the fear might help them overcome it. Instead, the meeting becomes chaotic as the "littleuns" describe the beast, Simon suggests that the beast may be inside the boys themselves, and Jack challenges Ralph’s leadership. The assembly shows exactly why Ralph called it: the group needs order, but order is becoming harder to maintain. Chapter 5 turns Ralph’s leadership into a struggle against the other boys’ tendency toward fun, fear, and violence.