All three stories deal with the displacement or expulsion of old men who are forced to leave their modest lives in search of a new niche where they might fit.

The story follows the narrator as he tries to find a new place for himself, all the while presenting his bitterness and anger towards many things in the world.

According to S. E. Gontarski: "What one is left with after the Texts for Nothing is 'nothing,' incorporeal consciousness perhaps, into which Beckett plunged afresh in English in the early 1950s to produce a tale rich in imagery but short on external coherence.

"[3] Thus these texts, when compared to the three earlier stories, as well as "First Love", may be interpreted as representing a movement in Beckett's writing from modernism to postmodernism.

"[4] This idea is voiced in text 4, where the narrator admits stories are not required any more: There's my life, why not, it is one, if you like, if you must, I don't say no, this evening.