Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism uses a wide variety of information to look carefully at a piece of writing and pick apart what makes it tick. The literary elements and themes are important but so is the background of the author, the context of the times, the commonly understood cultural references, among other things. All of this can be gleaned from many different places.
Literary Criticism is one of the things that you can't just jump on the internet and find everything you need. Most critical sites will ask you to pay for access or are full of dead links.
Google Scholar will be helpful but many of those results also live behind a paywall.
The books Short Stories for Students are very helpful and will have much of the information you will need. Even if your short story is not included, if your author is, there is a wealth of information to be found.
Look up the biography of your author. That can tell you a lot. Knowing that Ambrose Bierce was a combat veteran of the Civil War will help you understand An Occurrence at Owl Creek just as knowing that Laurie Halse Anderson was sexually assaulted as a young teenager explains a great deal about the book Speak. In critiquing the poetry of Langston Hughes it helps to understand Jim Crow America and his role in the Harlem Renaissance.
Look up reviews of your stories. Search term: review "Title of your story in quotation marks".
In addition to Short Stories for Students the databases below will be very helpful. Also, make use of TC3's databases.

Use Encyclopedia Britannica to look up your author or major events in their lives.

You can search the entire set of databases or scroll all the way down to Literature Criticism and search just that.

Either way, good stuff.

Select Literary Reference Center