The Conflict

I am taking a class on writing and the assignment is to write a story with a beginning, middle, and end with a conflict and resolution. I have the very basics and core of the story but am having a hard time coming up with a conflict for the protagonist. My story revolves around one main character, a male, who lives in the city (New York). The story is basically about how the main character sees the world through an outsiders point of view, in other words, he sees what most people don't or ignore. I could go two ways with this story. I could go the reality route, or I could put a little surrealism into the mix. Both could make for a great story.

What I am really having trouble with is the conflict. I just can't seem to come up with anything exciting that could possibly happen to this character that would tell a great story. If I go the reality route, something non-phenomenal would have to happen (good or bad) to this character that might possibly lead to a moral or get the reader thinking. If I go the surreal route, something that just couldn't ever happen in reality and totally fictional would have to occur in order to make the story interesting. I would really like to try the surreal route because it is more challenging.

So what it comes down to is...I need help with ideas on something surreal/fictional that could happen that hasn't really been done before or we don't see it as often. Some examples of surreal or fictional situations would be movies like Stranger Than Fiction, The Truman Show, Being John Malkovitch, or even Eternal Sunshine.