You may choose to focus on a character, although NOT Tim O’Brien, as he is too large and found in too many stories. Norman Bowker, Mitchell Sanders, Rat Kiley, or Kiowa might make nice papers. Explore what the character represents through what he carries and what his function is in the story. What point does the fiction make about the war through this character? Does the character change? What is the eventual fate of the character and what is this trying to say about the war?Write an introduction that provides a little historical background about the Vietnam War. This will require a little bit of research, but not a lot. Just have some facts that will help provide a context for the points you want to make about the war.
When quoting your book, you should use the MLA style of documentation. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue is an excellent source for looking up how to do both short and long quote formats correctly.