His head is unnaturally twisted in a painful manner as he clutches a broken sword with his other arm. I have to say that it was most likely a soldier who died in combat. His broken sword represents his attempt to fight against modern German and Italian war machines. However, the fight he led was unfortunately not enough to influence the outcome of the bombing of Guernica. It is for him a powerful image which he symbolizes as a sign of defeat. However, if you look very closely, there is a flower that has been drawn very lightly above the sword, almost imperceptible. I thought this was an interesting feature of the painting Picasso added since most of the drawings depicted either chaos, despair or pain, but this little flower above the soldier's severed arm is a subtle symbol of hope. Although the flower is very pale, it is very meaningful and symbolizes the possibility that there is hope in the future among all the destruction that is currently happening.