Bringing two different things together with an explicit word, such as "like," "just as," or "seems." Unlike the metaphor, the comparison makes it clear that they are two things.
In Quincas Borba
to finally treat it as if it were not a dog, but a human person
The clause asks that the dog be treated "as if" it were a "human person," and the explicit approximation between beast and human gives the will a comic air and ties the fortune to the animal.
Chapters XIII to XXVIII: The Inheritance and Rubião's Temptation, the narrator
that glance was like a visiting card exchanged between the two consciences
Chapters LVIII to LXVII: The Atalaia, the Rescue, and Maria Benedita, the narrator
I love him as I love God, who is in Heaven
Chapters CXIV to CXVIII: The Engagement of Maria Benedita, Maria Benedita
It was like the painful ascent a man would make out of the abyss
Chapters CLXXII to CLXXXI: Teófilo, the Ministry, and Abandonment, the narrator
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