From What Simple Things Come Why is it that everything in life has to have a conflict? Whether it is good or bad, something has to trigger it. In The Old Man in the Sea, a character, named Santiago, fell into a conflict of inadequate proportions. He went out into the sea, searching to find something that might take his life complete, to maybe find some serenity. Not only did he find it, but there was a catch. Was Santiago strong enough to keep it? Was he strong enough to take on the beasts in the water? Santiago caught a fish, not only the fish that he would have waited eighty-five days for, but a fish in such gig