A comparison may make the subject attractive, honourable, or desirable by borrowing the favourable associations of what it is compared with. This is embellishment. It may instead evoke aversion through an ugly or repellent image: disparagement.
A noble character compared with light can be made admirable; wrongful behaviour likened to filth can be made repellent.
Good analysis identifies the intended evaluative change in the hearer, not merely whether the image is pleasant or unpleasant.
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Purposes, Classifications, and Rhetorical Degrees of Simile
A comparison may make the subject attractive, honourable, or desirable by borrowing the favourable associations of what it is compared with. This is embellishment. It may instead evoke aversion through an ugly or repellent image: disparagement.
A noble character compared with light can be made admirable; wrongful behaviour likened to filth can be made repellent.
Good analysis identifies the intended evaluative change in the hearer, not merely whether the image is pleasant or unpleasant.